Library / English Dictionary

SUFFOCATE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake

Example:

he swallowed a fishbone and gagged

Synonyms:

choke; gag; strangle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

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)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Feel uncomfortable for lack of fresh air

Example:

The room was hot and stuffy and we were suffocating

Classified under:

Verbs of grooming, dressing and bodily care

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 3

Meaning:

Be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

Example:

The child suffocated under the pillow

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; stifle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 4

Meaning:

Suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of

Example:

His job suffocated him

Synonyms:

choke; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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:

Become stultified, suppressed, or stifled

Example:

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

Synonyms:

choke; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

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 6

Meaning:

Impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of

Example:

The foul air was slowly suffocating the children

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; choke; stifle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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 7

Meaning:

Deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing

Example:

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

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; smother; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

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)

Credits

 Context examples: 

I walked fast through the room: I stopped, half suffocated with the thoughts that rose faster than I could receive, comprehend, settle them:—thoughts of what might, could, would, and should be, and that ere long.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When the blood began to spurt out, he took my hands in one of his, holding them tight, and with the other seized my neck and pressed my mouth to the wound, so that I must either suffocate or swallow some of the— Oh my God! my God! what have I done?

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

In 2011, Sargassum populations started to explode in places it hadn’t been before, like the central Atlantic Ocean, and then it arrived in gargantuan gobs that suffocated shorelines and introduced a new nuisance for local environments and economies.

(Satellites Find Biggest Seaweed Bloom in the World, NASA)

He had been suffocating in that atmosphere, while the apprentice's chatter had driven him frantic.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I was choking and suffocating by the time I reached Wolf Larsen’s bunk.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

His voice seemed suffocated, and my first impulses, which had suggested to me the duty of obeying the dying request of my friend in destroying his enemy, were now suspended by a mixture of curiosity and compassion.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

I shall remember how you thrust me back—roughly and violently thrust me back—into the red-room, and locked me up there, to my dying day; though I was in agony; though I cried out, while suffocating with distress, 'Have mercy! Have mercy, Aunt Reed!'

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

He could scarcely breathe, and his heart was pounding the blood up into his throat and suffocating him.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

I was beneath the water, suffocating and drowning.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

My heart beat thick, my head grew hot; a sound filled my ears, which I deemed the rushing of wings; something seemed near me; I was oppressed, suffocated: endurance broke down; I rushed to the door and shook the lock in desperate effort.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)