smothering

smoth·er  (smr)

v. smoth·ered, smoth·er·ing, smoth·ers

v.tr.

1.

a. To suffocate (another).

b. To deprive (a fire) of the oxygen necessary for combustion.

2. To conceal, suppress, or hide: Management smothered the true facts of the case. We smothered our indignation and pressed onward.

3. To cover thickly: smother chicken in sauce.

4. To lavish a surfeit of a given emotion on (someone): The grandparents smothered the child with affection.

v.intr.

1.

a. To suffocate.

b. To be extinguished.

2. To be concealed or suppressed.

3. To be surfeited with an emotion.

n.

Something, such as a dense cloud of smoke or dust, that smothers or tends to smother.

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[Middle English smotheren, from smorther, dense smoke; see smolder.]

Thesaurus

Adj.

1.

smothering - causing difficulty in breathing especially through lack of fresh air and presence of heat; "the choking June dust"; "the smothering soft voices"; "smothering heat"; "the room was suffocating--hot and airless" suffocating, suffocative breathless, dyspneal, dyspneic, dyspnoeal, dyspnoeic - not breathing or able to breathe except with difficulty; "breathless at thought of what I had done"; "breathless from running"; "followed the match with breathless interest"

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smothering noun

Related words
fear pnigerophobia