suffocate

When you suffocate, you struggle for breath, either because you’re being choked to death or because you’re in a stifling room. You can also suffocate in a figurative sense anytime something is restricted.

Suffocate can also mean to die from lack of oxygen. If you’re a miner who gets trapped in a collapsed mine, you'll likely suffocate. Less seriously, if the ventilation system is turned off in your school, you might feel as though you'll suffocate. And if your art teacher insists that you produce Dadaist paintings, you may feel that she's trying to suffocate your talent.

Definitions of suffocate

1

v deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing

“The child suffocated herself with a plastic bag that the parents had left on the floor”

Synonyms:: asphyxiate, smother

: asphyxiate, stifle
be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

Type of:: kill
cause to die; put to death, usually intentionally or knowingly

v impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of

“The foul air was slowly suffocating the children”

Synonyms:: asphyxiate, choke, stifle

Type of:: block, close up, impede, jam, obstruct, obturate, occlude
block passage through

v struggle for breath; have insufficient oxygen intake

Synonyms:: choke, gag, strangle

Type of:: hurt, suffer
feel pain or be in pain

v be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

“The child suffocated under the pillow”

Synonyms:: asphyxiate, stifle

: asphyxiate, smother
deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing

Types:: strangle
die from strangulation

Type of:: buy the farm, cash in one's chips, choke, conk, croak, decease, die, drop dead, exit, expire, give-up the ghost, go, kick the bucket, pass, pass away, perish, pop off, snuff it
pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life

v feel uncomfortable for lack of fresh air

“The room was hot and stuffy and we were suffocating”

Type of:: feel
be conscious of a physical, mental, or emotional state

v suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of

“His job suffocated him”

Synonyms:: choke

: choke
become stultified, suppressed, or stifled

Type of:: dampen, stifle
smother or suppress

v become stultified, suppressed, or stifled

“He is suffocating--living at home with his aged parents in the small village”

Synonyms:: choke

: choke
suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of

Type of:: become, turn
undergo a change or development