smother
verbEtymology
From Middle English smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”, noun)) of Middle English smoren (“to smother”), from Old English smorian (“to smother, suffocate, choke”), from Proto-Germanic *smurōną (“to suffocate, strangle”), probably related to *smallijan (“to burn”) or Old English smoca (“smoke”). Cognate with Middle Low German smoren, smurten (“to choke, suffocate”), West Flemish smoren (“to smoke, reek”), Dutch smoren (“to suffocate, smother", also "to stew, simmer”), German schmoren (“to stew, simmer, braise”).
Definitions
To suffocate
To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
- He smothered her by pressing his hand over her mouth.
- But I am Pestilence;—hither and thither I flit about, that I may slay and smother;— All lips which I have kissed must surely wither, But Death’s—if thou art he, we’ll go to work together!
- […] he dashes to his destination at such a speed that when he stops the horse half smothers him in a cloud of steam. "Unbear him half a moment to freshen him up, and I'll be back."
To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.
- to smother a fire with ashes
To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity
To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish
- The committee's report was smothered.
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To cook in a close dish.
- beefsteak smothered with onions
To daub or smear.
- And I keep quite a lot of it around, especially chocolate-covered almonds and Trader Joes minipretzels smothered in dark chocolate.
To be suffocated.
- She is smothered by the rope.
To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or…
To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
to burn very slowly for want of air
to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment
to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
To get in the way of a kick of the ball.
- Emmanuel Adebayor's touch proved a fraction heavy as he guided Van der Vaart's exquisite long ball round John Ruddy, before the goalkeeper did well to smother Bale's shot from Modric's weighted pass.
To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is…
To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is kicking the ball, an opponent who is close enough will reach out with his hands and arms to get over the top of it, so the ball hits his hands after leaving the kicker's boot, dribbling away.
To prevent the development of an opponent's attack by one's arm positioning.
That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
The neighborhood
- neighborsmotheriness
Vish — recursive loop
A definitional loop anchored at smother. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.
A definitional loop anchored at smother. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.
7 hops · closes at smother
curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.
sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA