Suffocation vs. Smother — What's the Difference?

The state or process of dying from being deprived of air or unable to breathe

To suffocate (another).

To kill or destroy by preventing access of air or oxygen.

To deprive (a fire) of the oxygen necessary for combustion.

To impair the breathing of or cause discomfort to by cutting off the supply of fresh air.

To conceal, suppress, or hide

To suppress the development, imagination, or creativity of; stifle

To cover thickly

To die from lack of air or oxygen.

To lavish a surfeit of a given emotion on (someone)

To feel discomfort from lack of fresh air.

To suffocate.

To become or feel oppressed; be stifled.

To be extinguished.

(uncountable) Asphyxia—a condition in which an extreme decrease in the concentration of oxygen in the body accompanied by an increase in the concentration of carbon dioxide leads to loss of consciousness or death.

To be concealed or suppressed.

(countable) A particular act of death or killing by means of asphyxia.

To be surfeited with an emotion.

The act of suffocating, or the state of being suffocated; death caused by smothering or choking.

Something, such as a dense cloud of smoke or dust, that smothers or tends to smother.

Killing by depriving of oxygen

(transitive) To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.

The condition of being derprived of oxygen (as by having breathing stopped)

(transitive) To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.

(transitive) To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish

To cook in a close dish.

(transitive) To daub or smear.

(intransitive) To be suffocated.

(intransitive) To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.

To burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.

To perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.

(soccer) To get in the way of a kick of the ball.

(Australian rules football) To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is kicking the ball, an opponent who is close enough will reach out with his hands and arms to get over the top of it, so the ball hits his hands after leaving the kicker's boot, dribbling away.

(boxing) To prevent the development of an opponent's attack by one's arm positioning.

That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly

Smoldering; slow combustion.

Cookware used in such cooking.

(dated) The state of being stifled; suppression.

(dated) Stifling smoke; thick dust.

(Australian rules football) The act of smothering a kick (see verb section).

To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.

To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air by a thick covering, as of ashes, of smoke, or the like; as, to smother a fire.

Hence, to repress the action of; to cover from public view; to suppress; to conceal; as, to smother one's displeasure.

To be suffocated or stifled.

To burn slowly, without sufficient air; to smolder.

Stifling smoke; thick dust.

A state of suppression.

That which smothers or causes a sensation of smothering, as smoke, fog, the foam of the sea, a confused multitude of things.

A confused multitude of things

A stifling cloud of smoke

Envelop completely;

Deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing;

Conceal or hide;

Form an impenetrable cover over;

Deprive of the oxygen necessary for combustion;