[f. L. suffōcāt-, pa. ppl. stem of suffōcāre, f. suf- = SUB- 1 + faucēs throat.]
1. trans. To kill (a person or animal) by stopping the supply of air through the lungs, gills or other respiratory organs.
1599. A. M., trans. Gabelhouer’s Bk. Physicke, 231/2. Ether in his mothers bodye, or els in the birth it might be suffocatede.
1641. J. Jackson, True Evang. T., I. 44. Others inverted … and a fire being underneath, were so smoaked and suffocated to death.
1681. Chetham, Angler’s Vade-m., xxxviii. § 11 (1689), 248. Fishes are suffocated in Waters if they be … frozen.
1791. Mrs. Inchbald, Simple Story, III. ii. 16. Half suffocated with the loss of breath.
1803. Med. Jrnl., IX. 488. The violent irritation and spasm … which so often suffocate children.
1817. Byron, Beppo, xvii. A Husband whom mere suspicion could inflame To suffocate a wife.
1873. Mivart, Elem. Anat., xii. 465. To suffocate a frog it is sufficient to keep its mouth open.
2. To interrupt or impede respiration in (a person); to stifle, choke. † Also, to throttle (the windpipe), stifle (the breath).
1599. Shaks., Hen. V., III. vi. 45. Let not Hempe his Windpipe suffocate.
1660. R. Coke, Power & Subj., 72. The nightmare; which … makes men think they are invaded, oppressed and suffocated with great weight.
1784. Cowper, Task, II. 819. Ev’ry plague that can infest Society … meets the eye, the ear, And suffocates the breath at ev’ry turn.
1800. Mrs. Hervey, Mourtray Fam., II. 27. I am suffocated in this crowd.
1848. Dickens, Dombey, l. He had like to have suffocated himself with this pleasantry.
1854. J. S. C. Abbott, Napoleon (1855), II. xxii. 418. The soldiers were suffocated with sorrow.
3. To destroy as if by the exclusion of air; to smother, overwhelm, extinguish.
a. something material or physical.
1584. R. Scot, Discov. Witchcr., XII. vi. 223. Manie lewd persons … with incantations … doo … extinguish, suffocate, and spoile all vineyards, ortchards, medowes [etc.].
1614. T. Adams, Diuells Banket, III. 109. The thicke spumy mists, which vapour vp from the … earth, doe often suffocate the brighter aire.
1652. French, Yorksh. Spaw, iv. 46. The use of cold baths is not … for old men, because that little heat which they have is thereby suffocated.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chym., I. 122. By distillation … it [sc. acid of Vinegar] may be freed … from the great quantity of water which in a manner suffocates it.
1793. Trans. Soc. Arts, V. 54. The plants … will suffocate every kind of weed near them.
1797. Phil. Trans., LXXXVII. 421. A mass sufficiently thick to suffocate the whole of the light which enters it.
1807. J. Barlow, Columb., II. 330. His fleet high flaming suffocates the skies.
1842. Loudon, Suburban Hort., 386. The roots are suffocated and rotted from their delicacy.
b. something immaterial, esp. a mental attribute.
1526. Pilgr. Perf. (W. de W., 1531), 76 b. Labour … to expell the same venym … or … to suffocate or smere it within ye.
c. 1550. Rolland, Crt. Venus, ii. 720. Thay wald him mak sum aid,… Or his sorrow in sum part suffocat.
1644. Prynne & Walker, Fiennes’ Trial, 39. It being a meere artifice … to suffocate the truth.
1664. H. More, Myst. Iniq., 257. The being inveigled in idolatrous Worship does not quite suffocate and dead that Divine sense.
1749. Hartley, Observ. Man, I. i. § 1. 44. Blood and Serum … lying in the Ventricles, suffocate Sensations.
1868. Milman, St. Paul’s, vi. 112. That … superstition which … had suffocated the higher truths of religion.
4. intr. To become stifled or choked. rare.
1702. De Foe, Mock Mourners (ed. 3), 77. Convulsions follow, and such Vapours rise, The Constitution Suffocates and Dies.
1730. Phil. Trans., XXXVI. 449. The Disease continued so obstinate, and the Patient so like to suffocate, that [etc.].
1883. Mrs. H. M. Plunkett, in Harper’s Mag., Jan., 237/2. You all know how I suffocate in a stuffy room.
1888. Daily News, 9 July, 5/7. Whilst he was suffocating he remained calm and still.
Hence Suffocated ppl. a., Suffocating vbl. sb.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 23. Death is a suffocating and quenching of the naturall heate of the body.
1737. Whiston, Josephus, Hist., V. xi. § 4. As the suffocated materials were now gradually consumed.
1793. Beddoes, Scurvy, etc., 50. In suffocated animals the left cavities of the heart are full of venous blood.
1898. G. B. Shaw, Plays, II. Candida, 143. In a suffocated voice.
