suffocate
/ˈsʌfəkeɪt/
Word Rarity
Rare
Frequency: Zipf frequency 2.86 in modern English
17
Scrabble Score
9
Letters
3
Syllables
8
Unique Chars
Meaning
verb
To overwhelm, or be overwhelmed (by a person or issue), as though with oxygen deprivation.
Example Sentences
- "Open the hatch, he is suffocating in the airlock!"
- "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."
- "He suffocated his wife by holding a pillow over her head."
- "Let not hemp his windpipe suffocate."
- "I'm suffocating under this huge workload."
- "If the trend to private cars continues, the more quickly will the road traffic suffocate itself, [...]."
Etymology
The adjective is first attested in the 1420s, 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.
Origin
- Source language: Middle English
- First known use: first attested in the 1420s
Word Breakdown
- Root: suffocat, suffōcātus, suffōcō
Usage
Inflected Forms
suffocates (present, singular)
suffocating (participle, present)
suffocated (participle, past)
suffocated (past)
more suffocate (comparative)
most suffocate (superlative)