SMOTHER

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 Dictionary entry overview: What does smother mean? 

• SMOTHER (noun)
  The noun SMOTHER has 2 senses:

1. a confused multitude of things

2. a stifling cloud of smoke

  Familiarity information: SMOTHER used as a noun is rare.

• SMOTHER (verb)
  The verb SMOTHER has 5 senses:

1. envelop completely

2. deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing

3. suppress in order to conceal or hide

4. form an impenetrable cover over

5. deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion

  Familiarity information: SMOTHER used as a verb is common.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SMOTHER (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

A confused multitude of things

Classified under:

Nouns denoting stable states of affairs

Synonyms:

clutter; fuddle; jumble; mare's nest; muddle; smother; welter

Hypernyms ("smother" is a kind of...):

disorder; disorderliness (a condition in which things are not in their expected places)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "smother"):

rummage (a jumble of things to be given away)

Sense 2

Meaning:

A stifling cloud of smoke

Classified under:

Nouns denoting natural phenomena

Hypernyms ("smother" is a kind of...):

fume; smoke (a cloud of fine particles suspended in a gas)

• SMOTHER (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they smother    ... he / she / it smothers   
Past simple: smothered   
Past participle: smothered   
-ing form: smothering   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Envelop completely

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

smother; surround

Context example:

smother the meat in gravy

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

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

Sentence frames:

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

Sentence example:

The wind storms smother the area with dust and dirt

Sense 2

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 "smother" is one way to...):

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

"Smother" 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 smother the prisoners

Sense 3

Meaning:

Suppress in order to conceal or hide

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

muffle; repress; smother; stifle; strangle

Context example:

repress a cry of fear

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

bottle up; inhibit; suppress (consciously restrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior)

Sentence frames:

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

Derivation:

smotherer (a person who stifles or smothers or suppresses)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Form an impenetrable cover over

Classified under:

Verbs of being, having, spatial relations

Context example:

the butter cream smothered the cake

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

cover; spread over (form a cover over)

Sentence frame:

Something ----s something

Sentence example:

Dust and dirt smother the area

Sense 5

Meaning:

Deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Synonyms:

put out; smother

Context example:

smother fires

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

extinguish; snuff out (put an end to; kill)

"Smother" entails doing...:

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

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

 Context examples 

A whitecap foamed above it and broke across in a snow-white smother.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

The subjects of which her heart had been full on leaving Kellynch, and which she had felt slighted, and been compelled to smother among the Musgroves, were now become but of secondary interest.

(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)

A smother of spray dashed up, wetting his face.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

"My... My hair!" burst out poor Jo, trying vainly to smother her emotion in the pillow.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

Silver, sir, returned the captain; he's as anxious as you and I to smother things up.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

If my ears did not deceive me there was a gasp and a low wail, as of a half-smothered child.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Shutting the door, he approached me and said in a smothered voice, You have destroyed the work which you began; what is it that you intend?

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Since Capricorn is an earth sign, it could have felt like your air supply was being cut off—a smothering experience.

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Buck simply smothered him by virtue of superior weight, and cut him up till he ceased snapping and began to whine for mercy.

(The Call of the Wild, by Jack London)

And overhead—yes, in the room just above my chamber-ceiling—I now heard a struggle: a deadly one it seemed from the noise; and a half-smothered voice shouted—"Help! help! help!" three times rapidly.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)