suffocate
/ˈsʌfəkeɪt/
suffocate verb: to suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
Verb
suffocate (third-person singular simple present suffocates, present participle suffocating, simple past and past participle suffocated)
- To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
- Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!
- It is because of freedom, one netizen replied: Like air, you may not realize its importance, but when suffocating, you would know how precious it is.2020 November 2, Jiu Xiao, “Chinese Communist Party Officials Push Anti-U.S. Propaganda While Sending Families to Live in the U.S.”, in Minghui
- Synonyms:
- asphyxiate, choke
- To die due to, or kill someone by means of, insufficient oxygen supply to the body.
- He suffocated his wife by holding a pillow over her head.
- Let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.1599 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Life of Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
- Synonyms:
- stifle, choke, asphyxiate, smother
- To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
- I'm suffocating under this huge workload.
- If the trend to private cars continues, the more quickly will the road traffic suffocate itself, [...].1962 April, “London Airport rail link”, in Modern Railways, page 222
- Synonyms:
- drown, asphyxiate, choke, stifle
- To destroy; to extinguish.
- to suffocate fire
Adjective
suffocate (comparative more suffocate, superlative most suffocate)
- Suffocated, choked.
- Smothered, overwhelmed.
- This chaos, when degree is suffocate, follows the chokingc. 1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
suffocate meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Marathi and Urdu
suffocate in Hindi
- to suffocate
- घुटना ghuṭnā
suffocate in Tamil
- to suffocate, breathe hard
- மூச்சுமுட்டு mūccumuṭṭu
suffocate in Marathi
- to suffocate; to choke due to lack of air
- गुदमरणे gudmarṇe
suffocate in Urdu
- دم گھٹنا, دم گھوٹنا
More languagesFewer languages
- suffocate in Bengali
- দম বন্ধ করা, শ্বাসরোধ করা
- suffocate in Malayalam
- ശ്വാസംമുട്ടിക്കുക, ശ്വാസം മുട്ടിച്ചു കൊല്ലുക, വീർപ്പുമുട്ടിക്കുക
- suffocate in Kannada
- ಉಸಿರುಕಟ್ಟು, ಉಸಿರಡಗಿಸು
- suffocate in Arabic
- خَنَقَ ḵanaqa, اِخْتَنَقَ iḵtanaqa
- suffocate in Persian
- خفه شدن xafe šodan
- suffocate in Vietnamese
- ngạt, ngạt thở, ngộp, ngộp thở
Examples of suffocate in a sentence
- For what it’s worth, the same holds true for fish bowls: overfill and you’ll suffocate the guppies.
- When excavated soil is carelessly mounded around the base of a tree, the tree gradually suffocates.
- It was amazingly difficult to do; she was almost being suffocated.
Synonyms of suffocate
Forms of suffocate
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | suffocates |
| present participle | suffocating |
| past participle | suffocated |
| past | suffocated |
| Adjective | |
| comparative | more suffocate |
| superlative | most suffocate |
Origin of suffocate
The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, the verb in 1526; from Middle English suffocat(e) (“deprived of air, suffocated”), borrowed from Latin suffōcātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin suffōcō (see -ate (verb-forming suffix) and -ate (adjective-forming suffix)), from sub- (“under, up to”) + fōx (“throat”, oblique stem in fōc-). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
Words formed from suffocate
Questions about suffocate
- What does suffocate mean?
- Suffocate means to suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
- What is suffocate in Hindi?
- Suffocate in Hindi is घुटना (ghuṭnā). See Suffocate meaning in Hindi.
- What part of speech is suffocate?
- Suffocate can be a verb or an adjective.
- How do you pronounce suffocate?
- Suffocate is pronounced /ˈsʌfəkeɪt/.
- What is the past tense of suffocate?
- The past tense of suffocate is suffocated.
Words near suffocate in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: suffocate (page history and authors); घुटना (Hindi) (page history and authors); மூச்சுமுட்டு (Tamil) (page history and authors); गुदमरणे (Marathi) (page history and authors); suffocate (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suffocate (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suffocate (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); suffocate (Kannada Wiktionary) (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:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-suffocate.wav.
Cite this entry: “suffocate.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/suffocate. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.