smother

[smuhth-er]

verb (used with object)

1. to stifle or suffocate, as by smoke or other means of preventing free breathing.

2. to extinguish or deaden (fire, coals, etc.) by covering so as to exclude air.

3. to cover closely or thickly; envelop.

   to smother a steak with mushrooms.

4. to suppress or repress.

   to smother feelings.

5. Cooking.,  to steam (food) slowly in a heavy, tightly closed vessel with a minimum of liquid.

   smothered chicken and onions.

verb (used without object)

1. to become stifled or suffocated; be prevented from breathing.

2. to be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.

noun

1. dense, stifling smoke.

2. a smoking or smoldering state, as of burning matter.

3. dust, fog, spray, etc., in a dense or enveloping cloud.

4. an overspreading profusion of anything.

   a smother of papers.

smother

/ ˈsmʌðə /

verb

1. to suffocate or stifle by cutting off or being cut off from the air

2. (tr) to surround (with) or envelop (in)

   he smothered her with love

3. (tr) to extinguish (a fire) by covering so as to cut it off from the air

4. to be or cause to be suppressed or stifled

   smother a giggle

5. (tr) to cook or serve (food) thickly covered with sauce, etc

noun

1. anything, such as a cloud of smoke, that stifles

2. a profusion or turmoil

3. archaic,  a state of smouldering or a smouldering fire

Other Word Forms

• smotherable adjective
• half-smothered adjective
• unsmotherable adjective
• unsmothered adjective
• unsmothering adjective
• smothery adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of smother¹

1125–75; (noun) Middle English smorther dense smoke; akin to Old English smorian to suffocate; (v.) Middle English smo ( r ) theren, derivative of the noun

Word History and Origins

Origin of smother¹

Old English smorian to suffocate; related to Middle Low German smōren

Example Sentences

Geraint Berry said they should "kill him together" and that if Mrs Mills got the "urge to smother him" she should "make sure he's died".

Read more on BBC

Florida is also capable of frustrating opponents with a smothering defense.

Read more on Wall Street Journal

He is using every back door, loophole and extreme interpretation of the law to expand executive power and smother the system of checks and balances.

Read more on Salon

Chicken smothered in it is heaven for those raised on the comfort-food staple — or those who just crushed several vertical miles.

Read more on Los Angeles Times

But, confronted by it and asked in particular about Epstein's friendship with the former British Ambassador to the United States Lord Mandelson, he instantly smothered it as if with a fire blanket.

Read more on BBC

Related Words

• choke 
• douse 
• envelop 
• overwhelm 
• quash 
• quell 
• snuff 
• squelch 
• stifle 
• strangle 
• suffocate 
• suppress 
• surround