suck the air out of

Verb

suck the air out of (third-person singular simple present sucks the air out of, present participle sucking the air out of, simple past and past participle sucked the air out of)

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see suck, air, out.
2. To dominate or overwhelm, preventing anything or anyone else from receiving attention.
   • “We spent time on learning facilitation skills in order to bring all voices into their conversations, to quiet those who tend to 'suck the air' out of ...2007, Paul D. Houston, Alan M. Blankstein, Robert W. Cole, Out-of-the-Box Leadership, →ISBN, page 72
   • Modest about her achievements, Fletcher commented that “the play is the thing, not being a big movie star who sucks the air out of the room.”2010, Dave Montalbano, The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World, →ISBN
3. To destroy; to cause to become lifeless and empty.
   • It was this last possibility that sucked the air out of me. It was this that caused me to finally collapse back into the driver's seat of my car and tremble like I'd just come in soaking wet from a cold, hard rain, like I'd just started trying to extract the poison from my system all over again.2013, Tommy Housworth, Buddhist Catnaps and Broken-Down Hymns, →ISBN, page 138
   • To hear that Mrs. Donnelly doesn't think I'm a good match for her son, and that Brennan wasn't thinking of me in those terms in the first place, sucks the air out of me like I'm a deflating balloon.2014, Lyla Payne, Mistletoe and Mr. Right: A Christmas Romance, →ISBN