Other forms: suffocated, suffocating, suffocates
To suffocate is to die, or to kill, through being unable to breathe. Suffocate in the smoke, suffocated by a pillow, suffocating heat.
It means the air itself is cut off, by an obstruction, by smoke or by a lack of oxygen, and it is the word used in reporting and in forensic pathology. Figuratively, suffocating describes anything oppressive: a suffocating atmosphere, suffocating rules. Note that most fire deaths come from smoke rather than flame; and that suffocate, choke and strangle are three different mechanisms.
1verbsuffocateTo die or kill through being unable to breathe.
“Keep plastic bags away from babies, as they could suffocate.”
2verboppressTo oppress, figuratively.
“The rules suffocated roughly every good idea.”
suffocate is a deprivation of air.
Latin suffocare is sub plus fauces, the throat. To suffocate is literally to press under the throat, and the same fauces gives the anatomical term still used today.
Latin
suffōcātus
Middle English
suffocat — deprived of air, suffocated
English, today
suffocate
Built from
The adjective is 1420s, the verb in 1526; from Middle English suffocat (“deprived of air, suffocated”), borrowed from Latin suffōcātus, the perfect passive participle of Latin suffōcō (see -ate and -ate), from sub- (“under, up to”) + fōx (“throat”). Participial usage up until Early Modern English.
Etymology from Wiktionary, CC BY-SA
Practised in A Song of Ice and Fire