smother

Definition from Wiktionary, a free dictionary

Contents 1 English 1.1 Pronunciation 1.2 Verb 1.2.1 Related terms 1.2.2 Translations 1.3 Noun 1.4 References

[edit] English

[edit] Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -ʌðə(r)

[edit] Verb

to smother (third-person singular simple present smothers, present participle smothering, simple past and past participle smothered)

1. (transitive) To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of.
2. (transitive) To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air: as, to smother a fire with ashes.
3. (transitive) To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish; stifle; cover up; conceal; hide: as, the committee's report was smothered.
4. (transitive) In cookery: to cook in a close dish: as, beefsteak smothered with onions.
5. (transitive) To daub or smear.
6. (intransitive) To be suffocated.
7. (intransitive) To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
8. (intransitive) Of a fire: to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
9. (intransitive) Figuratively: to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
10. (Australian rules football) 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.

[edit] Related terms

• smotheration
• smotheriness
• smothery

[edit] Translations

[edit] Noun

smother (plural smothers)

1. That which smothers or appears to smother, in any sense.
2. The state of being stifled; suppression.
3. (Australian rules football) The act of smothering a kick (see above).

[edit] References

• smother in The Century Dictionary, The Century Co., New York, 1911