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suffocate

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

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English

Etymology

The adjective is first attested in the 1420's, the verb in 1526; from Middle English suffocat(e) (“deprived of air, suffocated”), borrowed from Latin suffōcātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin suffōcō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from sub- (“under, up to”) + fōx (“throat”, oblique stem in fōc-). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.

Pronunciation

  • IPA(key): (verb) /ˈsʌfəkeɪt/
  • IPA(key): (adjective) /ˈsʌfəkət/

Verb

suffocate (third-person singular simple present suffocates, present participle suffocating, simple past and past participle suffocated)

  1. (ergative) To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
    Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!
    • 2020 November 2, Jiu Xiao, “Chinese Communist Party Officials Push Anti-U.S. Propaganda While Sending Families to Live in the U.S.”, in Minghui‎:
      It is because of freedom, one netizen replied: Like air, you may not realize its importance, but when suffocating, you would know how precious it is.
  2. (ergative) To die due to, or kill someone by means of, insufficient oxygen supply to the body.
    He suffocated his wife by holding a pillow over her head.
  3. (ergative, figuratively) To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
    I'm suffocating under this huge workload.
    • 1962 April, “London Airport rail link”, in Modern Railways, page 222:
      If the trend to private cars continues, the more quickly will the road traffic suffocate itself, [...].
  4. (transitive) To destroy; to extinguish.
    to suffocate fire

Synonyms

Derived terms

Translations

(intransitive) to suffer from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body
(intransitive) to die due to insufficient oxygen supply to the body
(transitive) to cause someone to suffer severely reduced oxygen supply to his body
The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.
Translations to be checked

Adjective

suffocate (comparative more suffocate, superlative most suffocate)

  1. (obsolete, as a participle) Suffocated, choked.
  2. (obsolete) Smothered, overwhelmed.

Further reading

Anagrams

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Latin

Verb

suffōcāte

  1. second-person plural present active imperative of suffōcō

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