SUFFOCATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does suffocate mean? 

• SUFFOCATE (verb)
  The verb SUFFOCATE has 7 senses:

1. deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing

2. impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of

3. become stultified, suppressed, or stifled

4. suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of

5. be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

6. feel uncomfortable for lack of fresh air

7. struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake

  Familiarity information: SUFFOCATE used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SUFFOCATE (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they suffocate    ... he / she / it suffocates   
Past simple: suffocated   
Past participle: suffocated   
-ing form: suffocating   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; smother; suffocate

Context example:

The child suffocated herself with a plastic bag that the parents had left on the floor

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

kill (cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly)

"Suffocate" entails doing...:

cover (provide with a covering or cause to be covered)

Verb group:

asphyxiate; stifle; suffocate (be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody

Sentence example:

They want to suffocate the prisoners

Derivation:

suffocation (killing by depriving of oxygen)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; choke; stifle; suffocate

Context example:

The foul air was slowly suffocating the children

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

block; close up; impede; jam; obstruct; obturate; occlude (block passage through)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

suffocation (the condition of being deprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped))

suffocative (causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Become stultified, suppressed, or stifled

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

choke; suffocate

Context example:

He is suffocating--living at home with his aged parents in the small village

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

become; turn (undergo a change or development)

Verb group:

choke; suffocate (suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 4

Meaning:

Suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

choke; suffocate

Context example:

His job suffocated him

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

dampen; stifle (suppress or constrain so as to lessen in intensity)

Verb group:

choke; suffocate (become stultified, suppressed, or stifled)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 5

Meaning:

Be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; stifle; suffocate

Context example:

The child suffocated under the pillow

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)

Verb group:

asphyxiate; smother; suffocate (deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "suffocate"):

strangle (die from strangulation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Derivation:

suffocation (killing by depriving of oxygen)

suffocative (causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat)

Sense 6

Meaning:

Feel uncomfortable for lack of fresh air

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Context example:

The room was hot and stuffy and we were suffocating

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

feel (be conscious of a physical, mental, or emotional state)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

suffocative (causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat)

Sense 7

Meaning:

Struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

Synonyms:

choke; gag; strangle; suffocate

Context example:

he swallowed a fishbone and gagged

Hypernyms (to "suffocate" is one way to...):

hurt; suffer (feel pain or be in pain)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s
Somebody ----s on something
Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

suffocation (the condition of being deprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped))

suffocative (causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat)

 Context examples 

When he gets home it is suffocated.

(Fairy Tales, by The Brothers Grimm)

How long she had been there in that suffocating atmosphere I could not guess.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

He half suffocated himself with laughing here.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was life, the pangs of life, this awful, suffocating feeling; it was the last blow life could deal him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Her voice was suffocated with sobs.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

A widespread, naturally occurring, colorless and flammable liquid with a suffocating smell.

(Acetaldehyde, NCI Thesaurus)

You can suffocate or be burned.

(Fires, Federal Emergency Management Agency)

A colorless, flammable, carcinogenic liquid with an extremely suffocating odor.

(Bis(chloromethyl) Ether, NCI Thesaurus)

He steeled himself to keep above the suffocating languor that lapped like a rising tide through all the wells of his being.

(Love of Life and Other Stories, by Jack London)

Strangling, suffocating, sometimes one uppermost and sometimes the other, dragging over the jagged bottom, smashing against rocks and snags, they veered in to the bank.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)