Forms: α. smeorðren, 5 smorther. β. 3 smoðren, 5– smother, 6 smowther, 6–7 smouther, 6–8 smoother, 7 smuther. γ. 6 smoder, 6–7, 9 dial. smudder. [f. SMOTHER sb.]
I. trans. 1. a. To suffocate with smoke.
a. 1200–. [see SMOTHERING ppl. a. 1].
1560. Daus, trans. Sleidane’s Comm., 220 b. They were smothered with smoke and burnt all.
1579. Walsingham, in Victoria Hist. Co. Surrey (1902), I. 391. A fyre made … by hunters that had earthed a badger, and thought to have smouthered him.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia (1629), 85. But the poore Salvage … was so smoothered with the smoake he had made … that we found him dead.
1719. De Foe, Crusoe, II. (Globe), 496. The House, which was by this time all of a light Flame, fell in upon them, and they were smothered or burnt together.
1848. Bartlett, Dict. Amer., 314. That the inky stream may smother or drive away mosquitoes—Mrs. Clavers.
fig. 1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, To Rdr. With the verie smoke the consciences of diuers are smothered.
a. 1704. T. Brown, Sat. Persius imit., Wks. 1730, I. 54. By the thick fogs, which from his diet rise, His sense is smothered.
b. To suffocate by the prevention of breathing; to deprive of life by suffocation. (Freq. in passive without implication of personal agency.)
a. 1548. Hall, Chron., Hen. VIII., 55. [Certain criminals] the same Richarde Hun feloniously strangeled and smodered.
1600. E. Blount, trans. Conestaggio, 51. The thirde was smothered in the water.
1665. Manley, Grotius’ Low-C. Warrs, 221. They that escaped slaughter … were smother’d in the Mud.
1713. Addison, Cato, II. vi. The helpless traveller … smother’d in the dusty whirlwind dies.
1745. Pococke, Descr. East, II. I. vi. 27. Being surrounded, and almost smothered by the crowd.
1819. Shelley, Cenci, II. i. 143. How just it were to … smother me when overcome by wine.
1864. Miss Braddon, Aurora Floyd, xviii. What does the chap in the play get for his trouble when the blackamoor smothers his wife?
fig. 1742. Young, Nt. Th., I. 147. Is it in the flight of threescore years, To … smother souls immortal in the dust?
1781. Cowper, Truth, 316. He begs their flatt’ry,… And, smother’d in’t at last, is prais’d to death!
1813[?]. Shelley, Falsehood & Vice, 50. She smothered Reason’s babes in their birth.
1897. Miss Kingsley, W. Africa, 472. I therefore used to smother those twins by leading the conversation off.
absol. 1817. Shelley, Rev. Islam, VI. xlix. I am Pestilence…. I flit about, that I may slay and smother.
c. Used hyperbolically to denote an effusive welcome, etc., or the gaining of a complete or overwhelming victory.
(a) 1676. Wycherley, Pl. Dealer, IV. i. She … smothered me with a thousand tasteless kisses.
1873. Holland, A. Bonnicastle, v. 98. In a moment I was smothered with welcome.
(b) 1890. Pall Mall Gaz., 1 Dec., 1/3. If there is one club more than another which Notts County would care to smother it is Aston Villa.
1900. Westm. Gaz., 30 March, 2/2. They have simply smothered every scratch that has rowed against them.
2. † a. To conceal by keeping silent about; to suppress all mention of, to hush up (a matter, etc.). Obs. (Now with up: see 6 a.)
1579. W. Wilkinson, Confut. Fam. Love, 70 b. I lyke not to smother sinnes.
1591. Greene, Maidens Dr., ix. Bribes could not make him any wrong to smother.
1642. Gauden, 3 Serm., 48. As much as we defalk or smother of an inquired Truth.
1699. Bentley, Phalaris, 203. Somebody’s artifice in suppressing and smothering what he thinks makes against him.
1704. Hearne, Duct. Hist. (1714), I. 344. Great Care has been taken to smoother his Name, but Theopompus … tells us, he was called Erostratus.
1752. Young, Brothers, I. i. [Her story was] Smother’d by the king; And wisely too.
b. To cover up, so as to conceal or cause to be forgotten.
c. 1585. Faire Em, I. 295. Where neither envious eyes nor thought can pierce, But endless darkness ever smother it.
1613. Jackson, Creed, II. 357. It was in their hearts, though hid and smothered in the wrinkles of their crooked hearts.
1643. Baker, Chron., Eliz., 120. Richard Hooker,… who with too much meeknesse smoothered his great Learning.
1722. Steele, Conscious Lovers, I. ii. I am afraid … there’s something I don’t see yet, something that’s smother’d under all this Raillery.
1863. Kinglake, Crimea (1876), I. vii. 100. So he began to turn this way and that, in order that by turmoil he might smother the past.
c. To repress, refrain from displaying, (feeling, etc.) by the exercise of self-control.
1591. Shaks., 1 Hen. VI., IV. i. 110. Your priuate grudge my Lord of York, will out, Though ne’er so cunningly you smother it. Ibid. (1593), Lucr., Argt., Smoothering his passions for the present, [he] departed with the rest.
1624. Capt. Smith, Virginia, III. iii. 52. Smothering his distast to avoyd the Saluages suspition.
1662. J. Davies, trans. Mandelslo’s Trav., 245. The Gentleman … was a little troubled at it, but smother’d his indignation.
1712. Steele, Spect., No. 263, ¶ 6. Both your Sisters are crying to see the Passion which I smother.
1813. Shelley, Q. Mab, III. 43. Smothering the glow of shame.
1847. Prescott, Peru, III. vii. (1850), II. 190. Almagro … had seemed willing to smother his ancient feelings of resentment towards his associate.
1891. E. Peacock, N. Brendon, II. 101. She smothered her own grief.
3. To cover up so as to prevent from having free play or development; to suppress or check in this way.
1590. Shaks., Com. Err., III. ii. 35. My earthie grosse conceit: Smothred in errors. Ibid. (1605), Macb., I. iii. 141. Function is smother’d in surmise.
1650. H. More, Observ., in Enthus. Tri., etc. (1656), 108. You … by your slubbering and barbarous translating … smother the fitnesse of the Sense.
1762. Cowper, To Miss Macartney, 7. Dwells there a wish … to smother in ignoble rest At once both bliss and woe?
1780. Mirror, No. 71. 283. These exertions … would soon have been smothered by cold political prudence.
1823. Scott, Quentin D., xxiv. Ridicule … often checks what is absurd, and fully as often smothers that which is noble.
1843. R. J. Graves, Lect. Clin. Med., 371. You may smother the disease while it is merely local.
1882. Serjt. Ballantine, Exper., i. 9. Ability … smothered by pomposity and vulgar pride.
b. To prevent (words, etc.) from having full utterance; to render indistinct or silent.
1601. Holland, Pliny, I. 164. The fore-teeth … yeeld a distinction and varietie in our words,… drawing them out at length, or smuddering and drowning them in the end.
1797–1809. Coleridge, Three Graves, IV. xiv. No power Had she the words to smother.
1821. Clare, Vill. Minstr., I. 161. Contented she smother’d her sighs on his breast.
1832. Brewster, Nat. Magic, vii. 176. Suddenly the voice seemed smothered.
c. To stop (a cricket-ball) by placing the bat more or less over it.
1889. Boy’s Own Paper, 4 May, 496. How the twists should smothered be Before they reach the middle stump.
4. a. To deaden or extinguish (fire, etc.) by covering so as to exclude the air; to cause to smolder. Also fig.
a. 1591. H. Smith, Serm. (1637), 727. Many have smothered their light so long that the dampe hath put out the candle.
1627. Capt. Smith, Seaman’s Gram., xiii. 61. Smother the fire with wet cloathes.
1657. Austen, Fruit Trees, II. 143. Heat pent up and smoothered for a time.
1758. Reid, trans. Macquer’s Chym., I. 141. If care be taken to smother them, so as to prevent their flaming while they burn.
1787. T. Jefferson, Writ. (1859), II. 322. A fire, which, though smothered of necessity for the present moment, will probably never be quenched but by signal revenge.
1837. Carlyle, Fr. Rev., I. IV. iv. A fiery fuliginous mass, which could not be choked and smothered, but would fill all France with smoke.
1856. Kane, Arctic Expl., I. xxxii. 444. I succeeded in smothering the fire.
b. To cook in a close vessel. (Cf. SMORE v. 4.)
1706–7. Farquhar, Beaux’ Strat., I. i. They’ll eat much better smothered with onions.
1748–. [see SMOTHERED 3].
5. To cover up, cover over, densely or thickly by some thing or substance. (Common in recent use.)
1598. E. Guilpin, Skial., B iv a. To … shew good legs, spite of slops-smothering thies.
1840. R. H. Dana, Bef. Mast, xxxi. 113. In a few minutes the sails [were] smothered and kept in by clewlines and buntlines.
1851. Mayhew, Lond. Labour, II. 34/2. When dry and finished, we take what is called a ‘soft-heel-ball’ and ‘smother’ it over.
1872. Black, Adv. Phaeton, xxi. 297. The small stations we passed were smothered in green foliage.
6. With up: a. To conceal, suppress, hush up (a matter, etc.). Cf. sense 2 a.
1589. Pappe w. Hatchet, B iv b. Hee woulde not smoother vp sinne, and deale in hugger mugger against his Conscience.
1649. Milton, Eikon., ix. Wks. 1851, III. 401. The suspected Poysoning of his Father, not inquir’d into, but smother’d up.
1687. Miége, Gt. Fr. Dict., II. s.v., The Business was smothered up.
1827. Scott, Surgeon’s Dau., Pref. It was thought best to smother it up at the time.
1883. Stevenson, Treasure Isl., xiii. He’s as anxious as you and I to smother things up.
b. To cover up in a close, dense, or suffocating manner, etc.
c. 1590. Greene, Fr. Bacon, xiv. A nunne?… Twere injurie to me, To smother up such bewtie in a cell.
1592. Shaks., Ven. & Ad., 1035. And there [the snail] all smother’d up, in shade doth sit.
1631. Gouge, God’s Arrows, IV. § 13. 391. This fire … lay … smothered up.
1644. J. Fary, God’s Severity (1645), 23. The Lords wrath lies long smothered up, but at last it kindles.
1820. Keats, Hyperion, I. 106. I am smother’d up, And buried from all godlike exercise.
7. With down, out (see quots.). rare.
1632. Lithgow, Trav., VIII. 371. The … ingeniosity of their best styles … is ecclipsed, and smothered downe.
1863. Gardener’s Chron., 23 May, 493. The next year it may be noticed that the wished for crop has been smothered out.
II. intr. 8. To be suffocated or stifled; to be prevented from breathing freely by smoke or other means.
c. 1520. Everyman, 796. What, sholde I smoder here?
1648. Hexham, II. Ick Smoore van den roock, I Smoother with the smoake, or, I am Choaked with the Vapour.
1871. B. Taylor, Faust, V. iv. (1875), II. 283. Ah, the good old father, mother, Doomed among the smoke to smother.
1895. John Fox, Jr. in Century Mag., Aug., 628/2. One opinion was that he [a fox] would not go into his hole because he was too hot and would smother.
9. To smolder; to burn slowly. Now dial.
1600. Surflet, Countrie Farme, III. lv. 558. Set on fire a quantitie of haye, after quench it againe by and by, then lay it vpon coles, and whiles it is smoothering and smoaking, spread it vpon a plate of iron.
1667. Pepys, Diary, 29 July. The fire … lies smothering a great while … before it flames.
1729. G. Adams, trans. Sophocles, Antig., IV. i. II. 56. The Fire shone not from the Sacrifices, but in the Ashes the Flame smothered.
1804. Naval Chron., XI. 79. She will burn and smother to the Water’s edge.
1825. E. Hewlett, Cottage Comforts, vi. 42. Let the fire be banked up … with turves, which will smother on for hours.
1881–. in dialect use (Notts., Leic., Warw.).
b. fig. or in fig. context.
1579. L. Tomson, Calvin’s Serm. Tim., 447/1. He will not haue our sinns couered, and lie smothering so, yt they may not be knowen.
1588. Greene, Pandosto (1607), 4. These … thoughts a long time smothering in his stomacke, began at last to kindle … a secret mistrust.
1621. Lady M. Wroth, Urania, 357. Heere began the harme to smother like wet hay in fire.
1679. Mansell, Narr. Popish Plot, 5. When their old animosity did yet smoother.
1697. Collier, Ess. Mor. Subj., II. (1709), 65. A Man had better talk to a Post, than let his Thoughts lie Smoking and Smothering in his Head.
c. To die out in smolder. rare–1.
1621. T. Williamson, trans. Goulart’s Wise Vieillard, 63. The heate of passions in youth beginning to coole and smoother out in old men.
10. Of smoke: To escape slowly.
1725. De Foe, Voy. round World (1840), 262. We saw a smoke indeed in the house, rather than coming out of it; and the little that did, smothered through a hole in the roof instead of a chimney.
Hence Smotherable a., that may be smothered.
1824. Blackw. Mag., XVI. 664. A woman who is not over fastidious in all her personal arrangements … is to me the most justifiably smotherable.
