suffocate

Fetched 2026-10-29 (live).

Synonyms: suffocated, suffusate, sulfonate, sufflate, suffocative, suffocates

Antonyms: suffocated, suffusate, sulfonate, sufflate, suffocative, suffocates

Related words from Datamuse; suggestions, not definitions.

Verb

1. To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
   • Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!
2. 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.
3. To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
   • I'm suffocating under this huge workload.
4. To destroy; to extinguish.
   • to suffocate fire

Adjective

1. Suffocated, choked.
2. Smothered, overwhelmed.

Source: Wiktionary · CC BY-SA 3.0 (Wiktionary) · cached copy, not a rewrite.