The Collaborative International Dictionary
Smother \Smoth"er\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Smothered; p. pr. & vb. n. Smothering.] [OE. smotheren; akin to E. smoor. See Smoor.]
To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.
To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air by a thick covering, as of ashes, of smoke, or the like; as, to smother a fire.
Hence, to repress the action of; to cover from public view; to suppress; to conceal; as, to smother one's displeasure.
Wiktionary
n. The act by which someone or something is smothered. vb. (present participle of smother English)
WordNet
adj. 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" [syn: suffocating, suffocative]
Wikipedia
Smothering meat, seafood or vegetables is a cooking technique used in both Cajun and Creole cuisines of Louisiana. The technique involves cooking in a covered pan over low heat with a small amount of liquid, and can be seen as a form of stove-top braising. The meat dishes cooked in this fashion are typically served over boiled or steamed white rice as a rice and gravy, while the vegetables are typically served as side dishes.
Usage examples of "smothering".
Dam mR dammit, dam reit She dropped the box and backed up against the wall, smothering the flames--but not before she burned her hands and her back.
Ineptly smothering his own sputtering guffaws, Joe frantically thrust up his hands, again wiggling the fingertips for silence.
And a little while after that, the storm passed, but it left the air uncleansed, and the heat as smothering as ever.
Much of the ejecta curtain was curling into orbit in what would become the smothering ashfall of days to come.
All around there was nothing but a black, smothering emptiness darker and more forbidding than the blackest chasm of the Underdark.
How long could the light of Cuivre fight through a smothering network of Rams?
They would be trying to breathe things like acetone, while getting along without things like phosphorus and smothering in things like earwax and belly-button lint.
They were everywhere, in increasing numbersunder the bed, in the folds of the curtains and the canopy, falling with soft, heavy plops from the damask pelmet and the frilled valance like malignant raindrops, jammed, wriggling in corners, swarming up the elegant brass legs of the firescreen, smothering the matching firedogs, crawling up the gold-inlaid piers of the lacquered table, upsetting the bowl of oranges upheld on its silver pedestal by four winged babies.
Stuart held their horses still, and Danny felt a terrible, smothering fear, so vivid it became his own, and made his heart race.
Actually, Victoria had said, it was because the priest had to sit in that hotbox for hours and needed the air to keep from smothering.
Its air of sanctity disturbed him, just as the air itself heavy with molecules of hydroxyls and kevalins was like a plastic blanket thrown over his face, blinding him, smothering him.
In fact, it was so delightful that he forgot to keep control and his feelings washed out over Laris in a smothering wave.
He was constrained to drive out visiting with my Lady Lowestoft, and went, smothering a yawn.
Yet both of them were speaking learnedly of meteors, prissily drawing the distinction between meteor and meteorite, smothering any anxiety in a torrent of comforting verbiage.
A hand clamped down over Silvers mouth, smothering her outcry as she was jarred out of a sound sleep into half waking.