suffocation


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suf·fo·cate

 (sŭf′ə-kāt′)
v. suf·fo·cat·ed, suf·fo·cat·ing, suf·fo·cates
v.tr.
1. To kill or destroy by preventing access of air or oxygen.
2. To impair the breathing of or cause discomfort to by cutting off the supply of fresh air.
3. To suppress the development, imagination, or creativity of; stifle: "The rigid formality of the place suffocated her" (William Makepeace Thackeray).
v.intr.
1. To die from lack of air or oxygen.
2. To feel discomfort from lack of fresh air.
3. To become or feel oppressed; be stifled.

[Latin suffōcāre, suffōcāt- : sub-, sub- + faucēs, throat.]

suf′fo·ca′ting·ly adv.
suf′fo·ca′tion n.
suf′fo·ca′tive adj.
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright © 2016 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.
ThesaurusAntonymsRelated WordsSynonymsLegend:
Noun1.suffocation - killing by depriving of oxygensuffocation - killing by depriving of oxygen  
kill, putting to death, killing - the act of terminating a life
strangling, strangulation, throttling, choking - the act of suffocating (someone) by constricting the windpipe; "no evidence that the choking was done by the accused"
2.suffocation - the condition of being deprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped)suffocation - the condition of being deprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped); "asphyxiation is sometimes used as a form of torture"
hypoxia - oxygen deficiency causing a very strong drive to correct the deficiency
Based on WordNet 3.0, Farlex clipart collection. © 2003-2012 Princeton University, Farlex Inc.
Translations
خَنْق، إخْتِناق
udušení
kvælning
fulladásmegfulladás
köfnun
duseniezadusenie
zadušitev
boğulma

suffocation

[ˌsʌfəˈkeɪʃən] Nasfixia f, ahogo m
Collins Spanish Dictionary - Complete and Unabridged 8th Edition 2005 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1971, 1988 © HarperCollins Publishers 1992, 1993, 1996, 1997, 2000, 2003, 2005

suffocation

[ˌsʌfəˈkeɪʃən] nsuffocation f
Collins English/French Electronic Resource. © HarperCollins Publishers 2005

suffocation

n (lit, fig)Ersticken nt
Collins German Dictionary – Complete and Unabridged 7th Edition 2005. © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1980 © HarperCollins Publishers 1991, 1997, 1999, 2004, 2005, 2007

suffocation

[ˌsʌfəˈkeɪʃn] nsoffocazione f, soffocamento (Med) → asfissia
to die from suffocation → morire per asfissia
Collins Italian Dictionary 1st Edition © HarperCollins Publishers 1995

suffocate

(ˈsafəkeit) verb
to kill, die, cause distress to or feel distress, through lack of air or the prevention of free breathing. A baby may suffocate if it sleeps with a pillow; The smoke was suffocating him; May I open the window? I'm suffocating.
ˌsuffoˈcation noun
Kernerman English Multilingual Dictionary © 2006-2013 K Dictionaries Ltd.

suf·fo·ca·tion

n. asfixia, paro de la respiración.
English-Spanish Medical Dictionary © Farlex 2012

suffocation

n asfixia
English-Spanish/Spanish-English Medical Dictionary Copyright © 2006 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
References in classic literature ?
"Gentlemen," he said calmly, "there are two ways of dying in the circumstances in which we are placed." (This puzzling person had the air of a mathematical professor lecturing to his pupils.) "The first is to be crushed; the second is to die of suffocation. I do not speak of the possibility of dying of hunger, for the supply of provisions in the Nautilus will certainly last longer than we shall.
I was scorching up, burning alive internally, in an agony of fire and suffocation, and I wanted air.
One may think that the locality of your passing away by means of suffocation in water does not really matter very much.
I call it relief, though it was only the relief that a snap brings to a strain or the burst of a thunderstorm to a day of suffocation. It was at least change, and it came with a rush.
Many of us have the flying dream, the pursuing-monster dream, color dreams, suffocation dreams, and the reptile and vermin dreams.
While some stooped with their lips to the brink and never raised their heads again, others sprang up from their fiery draught, and danced, half in a mad triumph, and half in the agony of suffocation, until they fell, and steeped their corpses in the liquor that had killed them.
But unluckily, the hunchback happened to swallow a large bone, and, in spite of all the tailor and his wife could do to help him, died of suffocation in an instant.
From this state he was awakened -- ages later, it seemed to him -- by the pain of a sharp pressure upon his throat, followed by a sense of suffocation. Keen, poignant agonies seemed to shoot from his neck downward through every fiber of his body and limbs.
He had no thought for anything save to remove the biting pain from his nose and mouth, the suffocation from his lungs.
The house was filled to suffocation; and among other pieces to be recited was a new poem by H.
A brusque question caused him to stutter to the point of suffocation. When startled by anything perplexing he used to squint horribly.
Master Bates saw something so exquisitely ludicrous in this reply, that he burst into another laugh; which laugh, meeting the coffee he was drinking, and carrying it down some wrong channel, very nearly terminated in his premature suffocation.