ppl. a. [f. SMOTHER v.]
1. Of fire, flame, etc.: Not allowed to burn freely or break out. Also fig.
1594. Willobie, Avisa, xlv. 17. The smothered flame, too closely pent, Burnes more extreame for want of vent.
1697. Dryden, Virg. Past., VIII. 150. Break out ye smother’d Fires, and kindle smother’d Love.
1734. R. Ekskine, Gospel Sonn. (1782), 252. My praise is now a smotherd fire.
1837. P. Keith, Bot. Lex., 217. That the mass … may be still kept burning with a smothered flame.
2. Suppressed, concealed, restrained, kept down or under in some manner.
1607. Earl Stirling, J. Cæsar, III. ii. Whil’st smothred sorrow by a habite smokes.
1645. Pagitt, Heresiogr. (1661), 75. Their known uncleanness, smother’d mischiefs [etc.].
1728. Eliza Heywood, trans. Mme. de Gomez’s Belle A. (1732), II. 229. Angry with himself, that he had so long concealed the smother’d Anguish.
1752. Young, Brothers, I. i. I’ve partly heard Her smother’d story.
1807. Crabbe, Par. Reg., II. 552. While smother’d envy rises in the breast.
1856. Froude, Hist. Eng. (1858), I. 222. They must have heard something of the growls of smothered anger.
b. Smothered mate (see quot. 1847).
1822. W. Lewis, Chess, 24. The Knight is the only piece that can give a smothered mate.
1847. Staunton, Chess-Player’s Handbk., 25. Smothered mate, a checkmate which is sometimes given by the Knight when the adverse King is hemmed in, or smothered, by his own forces.
3. Cooked in a close vessel.
1748. in Omond, Arniston Mem. (1887), 108. Dinner…. Roast goose. Smothered rabbits.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas, X. iii. ¶ 10. A smothered rabbit on one side, and a fricasseed capon on the other.
4. Of sound: Suppressed, rendered indistinct.
1810. Southey, Kehama, XI. x. A sound, like smother’d thunder, Was heard.
1823. W. Price, Gram. 3 Oriental Langs., Pref. p. v. The Persians … seldom give the smothered sound of u to the short vowels.
1862. Burton, Book Hunter, I. 9. It is told in a smothered whisper … to the horrified family.
5. Thickly or densely covered up.
1902. ‘Linesman,’ Words by Eyewitness, 89. The red tongue of flame which told that the smothered piece was countering the blow.
Hence Smotheredly adv.
1656. Duchess of Newcastle, Nature’s Pictures, 117. She perceived his Amorous Humour not to quench, but rather to burn, though smotheredly.
