Asphyxiate

//əsˈfɪksieɪt// verb

verb ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Verb
  1. 1
    To smother or suffocate someone. transitive

    "A 39-year-old British woman was killed when a malfunctioning ottoman bed fell on her neck and asphyxiated her, a coroner’s report said."

  2. 2
    be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen wordnet
  3. 3
    To be smothered or suffocated. intransitive
  4. 4
    impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of wordnet
  5. 5
    deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing wordnet

Synonyms

All synonyms
smothersuffocatebe killedbottle upburkecensor

Example

More examples

"Hey! It's stuffy in here. Get me out before I asphyxiate."

Etymology

From asphyxia + -ate.

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.