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smother

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The definition of smother is to suffocate someone by covering their nose and mouth to cut off air, to cover something entirely, or to making someone feel trapped and overwhelmed by attention and affection.

(verb)

An example of smother is when you cover someone's face with a pillow and prevent them from breathing until they die.
An example of smother is when you cover your ice cream entirely with hot fudge.
An example of smother is when you call your boyfriend every 15 minutes, show up unannounced at his house all the time and constantly send him little gifts.

See smother in Webster's New World College Dictionary

transitive verb

1. to keep from getting enough air to breathe; stifle
2. to kill in this way; suffocate
to cover (a fire), excluding air from it and causing it to smolder or die down
to cover over thickly: liver smothered in onions
to hide or suppress by or as by covering; stifle: to smother a yawn

Origin: ME smorthren < smorther, dense smoke < base of OE smorian, to suffocate, akin to MLowG smoren, to smoke < var. of IE base *smel- > smell

intransitive verb

1. to be kept from getting enough air to breathe
2. to die in this way; be suffocated
to be hidden, stifled, or suppressed

noun

dense, suffocating smoke or any thick cloud of dust, steam, fog, etc.
a confused turmoil; welter
Archaic a smoldering fire
Archaic a smoldering state or condition

Related Forms:

smotherer noun
smothery adjective

See smother in American Heritage Dictionary 4

verb smoth·ered, smoth·er·ing, smoth·ers

verb, transitive

a. To suffocate (another).
b. To deprive (a fire) of the oxygen necessary for combustion.
To conceal, suppress, or hide: Management smothered the true facts of the case. We smothered our indignation and pressed onward.
To cover thickly: smother chicken in sauce.
To lavish a surfeit of a given emotion on (someone): The grandparents smothered the child with affection.

verb, intransitive