asphyxiating
asphyxiating adjective: causing asphyxiation; depriving living beings of the ability to breathe. Also the present participle and gerund of asphyxiate.
Adjective
asphyxiating (comparative more asphyxiating, superlative most asphyxiating)
- Causing asphyxiation; depriving living beings of the ability to breathe.
- If one digs a deep pit and another comes and broadens it, and an ox falls into it and dies, the rule is as follows: If the ox dies as a result of the asphyxiating atmosphere of the pit, the second person is exempt because his action has rendered the atmosphere less asphyxiating. If, however, it...1949, Moses Maimonides, The Code of Maimonides
- Jeune syndrome, or asphyxiating chondrodystrophy, is an extreme form of mixed pectus excavtum/carinatum and is very rare.2014, George W. Holcomb, J. Patrick Murphy, Daniel J Ostlie, Ashcraft's Pediatric Surgery
- Restrictive; stifling; preventing emotional or behavioral expression.
- For Kate, Dick and the theatre company represent a world of imagination, sensuality, and emotional freedom that her asphyxiating religion cannot accommodate.2007, Joe Cleary, Outrageous Fortune: Capital and Culture in Modern Ireland, page 126
- This sharing of emotional resources generates symbiotic energy fields between players, which they engage according to their inherent forces, and not based on the asphyxiating conventions of gender exclusivity and monogamy.2010, Serena Anderlini-D'Onofrio, Gaia and the New Politics of Love: Notes for a Poly Planet
- Overwhelming; breathtaking.
- But according to Gauchet's thesis, Christianity has proven to be 'a religion for departing from religion' (ibid. 4); the gradual emancipation from and death of God has trained and conditioned us Westerners to withstand the asphyxiating terror of freedom.2017, Daniel Whistler, Edinburgh Critical History of Nineteenth-Century Christian, page 8
- Deeply buried emotional wounds were now on the surface; wounds manifesting themselves by the manner we were both breathing heavily, lest we pass out from asphyxiating emotional pain.2019, Jon Kofas, Phantom of Apocalypse: A Dystopian novel
Also used as
asphyxiating is also the present participle and gerund of asphyxiate.
Examples of asphyxiating in a sentence
- Most fire safety analyses will focus on asphyxiating gases (and generally just CO and CO2).2015, Morgan J. Hurley, Eric R. Rosenbaum, Performance-Based Fire Safety Design, page 100:
- But it was not a quiet of awe or joy they felt: for most people it was the sobering thought of returning to “another asphyxiating week.”2011, Craig Harline, Sunday, page 134:
- Asphyxiating arches catch the breath And numb the senses of all who sought the lost prize.2024, Nishant Gang, It Happens: Navigating Life's Unpredictable Journey, page 25:
- It might cause shame to know on an intellectual level that this asphyxiating fear is, in reality, irrational.2024, Siri Helle, The Emotion Trap:
Forms of asphyxiating
| comparative | more asphyxiating |
|---|---|
| superlative | most asphyxiating |
Origin of asphyxiating
By surface analysis, asphyxiate + -ing.
Words formed from asphyxiating
Questions about asphyxiating
- What does asphyxiating mean?
- Asphyxiating means causing asphyxiation; depriving living beings of the ability to breathe.
- How do you use asphyxiating in a sentence?
- Most fire safety analyses will focus on asphyxiating gases (and generally just CO and CO2).
- What part of speech is asphyxiating?
- Asphyxiating is an adjective.
Words near asphyxiating in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: asphyxiating (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Cite this entry: “asphyxiating.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/asphyxiating. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.