Adjacent Words

asphyxiate definitions

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WordNet (r) 3.0 (2005)

v
1: deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing; "Othello smothered Desdemona with a pillow"; "The child suffocated herself with a plastic bag that the parents had left on the floor" [syn: smother, asphyxiate, suffocate]
2: impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of; "The foul air was slowly suffocating the children" [syn: suffocate, stifle, asphyxiate, choke]
3: be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen; "The child suffocated under the pillow" [syn: suffocate, stifle, asphyxiate]

Merriam Webster's

verb (-ated; -ating) Date: 1836 transitive verb to cause asphyxia in intransitive verb to become asphyxiated • asphyxiation noun

Oxford Reference Dictionary

v.tr. cause (a person) to have asphyxia; suffocate. Derivatives: asphyxiation n. asphyxiator n.

Webster's 1913 Dictionary

Asphyxiate As*phyx"i*ate, v. t. To bring to a state of asphyxia; to suffocate. Note: [Used commonly in the past pple.]

Collin's Cobuild Dictionary

(asphyxiates, asphyxiating, asphyxiated) If someone is asphyxiated, they die or lose consciousness because they are unable to breathe properly. Three people were asphyxiated in the crush for last week's train... = suffocate VERB: usu passive, be V-ed • asphyxiation A post mortem examination found that she died from asphyxiation.

Moby Thesaurus

OD, be killed, bottle up, burke, censor, choke, choke off, clamp down on, cork, cork up, crack down on, crush, damp down, drown, extinguish, famish, gag, garrote, hold down, jump on, keep down, keep under, kill, muzzle, pour water on, put down, quash, quell, quench, repress, shut down on, silence, sit down on, sit on, smash, smother, squash, squelch, stanch, starve, stifle, stop the breath, strangle, stultify, subdue, suffocate, suppress, throttle