suffocate
verbadjectiveattested in dialogue
- //ˈsʌfəkeɪt//
- //ˈsʌfəkət//
To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
verb
- 1
To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!
It is because of freedom, one netizen replied: Like air, you may not realize its importance, but when suffocating, you would know how precious it is.
- 2
To die due to, or kill someone by means of, insufficient oxygen supply to the body.
He suffocated his wife by holding a pillow over her head.
Let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
- 3
figurativeTo overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
I'm suffocating under this huge workload.
If the trend to private cars continues, the more quickly will the road traffic suffocate itself, [...].
- 4
To destroy; to extinguish.
to suffocate fire
Etymology
The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, the verb in 1526; from Middle English suffocat(e) (“deprived of air, suffocated”), borrowed from Latin suffōcātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin suffōcō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from sub- (“under, up to”) + fōx (“throat”, oblique stem in fōc-). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
adjective
- 1
obsoleteSuffocated, choked.
- 2
obsoleteSmothered, overwhelmed.
This chaos, when degree is suffocate, follows the choking
Forms
- comparative
- more suffocate
- superlative
- most suffocate
- past tense
- suffocated
- past participle
- suffocated
- present participle
- suffocating
- third person singular
- suffocates
suffocate · To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
suffocated · Having died as a result of suffocation.suffocating · Synonym of suffocation.sugar · A food consisting of small, sweet crystals, principally of…