[syn: smother, put out]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Smother \Smoth"er\, v. i.
1. To be suffocated or stifled.
[1913 Webster]
2. To burn slowly, without sufficient air; to smolder.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Smother \Smoth"er\, n. [OE. smorther. See Smother, v. t.]
1. Stifling smoke; thick dust. --Shak.
[1913 Webster]
2. A state of suppression. [Obs.]
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Not to keep their suspicions in smother. --Bacon.
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3. That which smothers or causes a sensation of smothering,
as smoke, fog, the foam of the sea, a confused multitude
of things.
Then they vanished, swallowed up in the grayness of
the evening and the smoke and smother of the storm.
--The Century.
[Webster 1913 Suppl.]
Smother fly (Zool.), an aphid.
[1913 Webster]
The Collaborative International Dictionary of English v.0.48:
Smother \Smoth"er\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Smothered; p. pr. &
vb. n. Smothering.] [OE. smotheren; akin to E. smoor. See
Smoor.]
1. To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the
air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to
prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.
[1913 Webster]
2. To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air
by a thick covering, as of ashes, of smoke, or the like;
as, to smother a fire.
[1913 Webster]
3. Hence, to repress the action of; to cover from public
view; to suppress; to conceal; as, to smother one's
displeasure.
[1913 Webster]
WordNet (r) 3.0 (2006):
smother
n 1: a confused multitude of things [syn: clutter, jumble,
muddle, fuddle, mare's nest, welter, smother]
2: a stifling cloud of smoke
v 1: envelop completely; "smother the meat in gravy" [syn:
smother, surround]
2: deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing; "Othello
smothered Desdemona with a pillow"; "The child suffocated
herself with a plastic bag that the parents had left on the
floor" [syn: smother, asphyxiate, suffocate]
3: conceal or hide; "smother a yawn"; "muffle one's anger";
"strangle a yawn" [syn: smother, stifle, strangle,
muffle, repress]
4: form an impenetrable cover over; "the butter cream smothered
the cake"
5: deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion; "smother
fires" [syn: smother, put out]