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Smother   /smˈəðər/   Listen
verb
Smother  v. t.  (past & past part. smothered; pres. part. smothering)  
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.
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.
3.
Hence, to repress the action of; to cover from public view; to suppress; to conceal; as, to smother one's displeasure.



Smother  v. i.  
1.
To be suffocated or stifled.
2.
To burn slowly, without sufficient air; to smolder.



noun
Smother  n.  
1.
Stifling smoke; thick dust.
2.
A state of suppression. (Obs.) "Not to keep their suspicions in smother."
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."
Smother fly (Zool.), an aphid.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Smother" Quotes from Famous Books



... asked him if he ever regretted, and his answer was to crush her in his arms and smother her lips with his. His answer, a minute ...
— Burning Daylight • Jack London

... moulder in the cave is proof enough, of itself, that none survived to bury the dead. I am inclined to believe, from the appearance of the place, that smoke could scarcely have been the real agent of destruction; then, as now, it would have taken a great deal of pure smoke to smother a Highlander. It may be perhaps deemed more probable, that the huge fire of rafter and roof-tree piled close against the opening, and rising high over it, would draw out the oxygen within as its ...
— The Cruise of the Betsey • Hugh Miller

... faith," he grew hopeful, happy, and strong. Here is a living seed, but it is very small an awakened, exercised, conscientious, believing monk, is an imperceptible atom which superstitious multitudes, and despotic princes, and a persecuting priesthood will overlay and smother, as the heavy furrow covers the microscopic mustard-seed. But the living seed burst, and sprang, and pierced through all these coverings. How great it grew and how far it spread history tells to-day. We have cause to thank God for the greatness of the Reformation, ...
— The Parables of Our Lord • William Arnot

... much,' in his ears, he sat down to a cigarette, before a dying fire. The heat was out of him—the glow of cutting a dash. It was all a damned heart-aching bore. 'I'll be even with that chap Jolly,' he thought, trailing up the stairs, past the room where his mother was biting her pillow to smother a sense of desolation which was trying ...
— Forsyte Saga • John Galsworthy

... halls of Mirth are crowded, Portentous, on the wanton scene— Some Fate, before from wisdom shrouded, Awakes and awes the souls of Men— Before that Stranger from ANOTHER, Behold how THIS world's great ones bow— Mean joys their idle clamour smother, The mask is vanish'd from the brow— And from Truth's sudden, solemn flag unfurl'd, Fly all the craven ...
— Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine, No. CCCXXVIII. February, 1843. Vol. LIII. • Various


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