• (GA) IPA: /ˈsmʌðɚ/

smother (smothers, present participle smothering; past and past participle smothered)

1. (transitive) To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
2. (transitive) To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.

   to smother a fire with ashes

3. (transitive) To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish

   Synonyms: stifle, cover up, conceal, hide

   The committee's report was smothered.

4. (transitive) In cookery: to cook in a close dish.

   beefsteak smothered with onions

5. (transitive) To daub or smear.
6. (intransitive) To be suffocated.
7. (intransitive) To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
8. (intransitive, of a fire) to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
9. (intransitive, figuratively) to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
10. (soccer) To get in the way of a kick of the ball.
11. (Australian rules football) To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is kicking the ball, an opponent who is close enough will reach out with his hands and arms to get over the top of it, so the ball hits his hands after leaving the kicker's boot, dribbling away.

• smotheration
• smotheriness
• smothery

• French: étouffer
• German: ersticken
• Italian: soffocare, asfissiare
• Portuguese: sufocar, asfixiar
• Russian: души́ть
• Spanish: sofocar, asfixiar, ahogar

• German: ersticken
• Italian: spegnere, estinguere, soffocare
• Portuguese: apagar
• Russian: туши́ть
• Spanish: apagar, sofocar, extinguir

• German: dämpfen, unterdrücken
• Italian: rallentare, ridurre, reprimere, nascondere, soffocare
• Spanish: reprimir

• Italian: affogare, ricoprire, colmare
• Russian: тушить

• Russian: задыха́ться

• French: suffoquer
• Russian: задыха́ться

• Russian: тлеть

smother (plural smothers)

1. That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
   1. Smoldering; slow combustion.
   2. Cookware used in such cooking.
   3. (dated) The state of being stifled; suppression.
      • 1625, Francis Bacon, Of Suspicion

        not to keep their suspicions in smother

   4. (dated) Stifling smoke; thick dust.
      • c. 1598–1600, William Shakespeare, “As You Like It”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies (First Folio), London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358 ↗, [Act I, scene 2], lines 239-40:

        Thus must I from the smoke into the smother, / From tyrant duke unto tyrant brother.

      • 1868, Judy (volumes 3-4, page 20)

        Then we passed the Grand Opéra, at which our fine taste revolted; the Rue de la Paix, all in a smother with the dust caused by its improvement, at which our eyes naturally distilled water; […]

   5. (Australian rules football) The act of smothering a kick (see verb section).