# suffocate
## English
### Etymology

The adjective is first attested in the 1420's, 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.

### Pronunciation

* (verb) IPA: /ˈsʌfəkeɪt/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (adjective) IPA: /ˈsʌfəkət/

### Verb

suffocate (third-person singular simple present suffocates, present participle suffocating, simple past and past participle suffocated)
* (ergative) To suffer, or cause someone to suffer, from severely reduced oxygen intake to the body.
    Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!
** 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: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.
* (ergative) 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.
** 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, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene vi]:Let not hemp his windpipe suffocate.
* (ergative, figuratively) To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
    I'm suffocating under this huge workload.
** 1962 April, “London Airport rail link”, in Modern Railways, page 222:If the trend to private cars continues, the more quickly will the road traffic suffocate itself, [...].
* (transitive) To destroy; to extinguish.
    to suffocate fire

#### Synonyms

* (To suffer from reduced oxygen): asphyxiate, choke
* (To die from insufficient oxygen): stifle, choke
* (To be overwhelmed): drown
* (To reduce oxygen supply): asphyxiate, choke, smother
* (To kill by deprivation of oxygen): asphyxiate, choke, stifle
* (To make weary with contact): smother

#### Derived terms

* smothercate
* suffocation

#### Related terms

* asphyxia

#### Translations

    The translations below need to be checked and inserted above into the appropriate translation tables. See instructions at Wiktionary:Entry layout § Translations.

### Adjective

suffocate (comparative more suffocate, superlative most suffocate)
* (obsolete, as a participle) Suffocated, choked.
* (obsolete) Smothered, overwhelmed.
** c. 1602, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene iii]:This chaos, when degree is suffocate, follows the choking

### Further reading

* “suffocate”, in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, Springfield, Mass.: G. & C. Merriam, 1913, →OCLC.
* William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “suffocate”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.
* “suffocate”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.

### Anagrams

* offuscate

## Latin
### Verb

suffōcāte
* second-person plural present active imperative of suffōcō