SMOTHER Synonyms: 147 Similar and Opposite Words

smother 1 of 2

verb

ˈsmə-t͟hər

Definition of smother

as in to strangle

to be or cause to be killed by lack of breathable air children should never play inside discarded appliances because they could become trapped and smother

Synonyms & Similar Words

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Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to stifle

to refrain from openly showing or uttering he quickly smothered his inappropriate laughter at the funeral ceremony

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

as in to bury

to defeat by a large margin the soccer team smothered their first few opponents in the championships, but lost narrowly in the final round

Synonyms & Similar Words

smother

2 of 2

Example Sentences

Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Recent Examples of smother

Verb

Fans of everything smothered, covered, and chunked in metro Atlanta have the chance to try out a potentially new item on Waffle House's menu. — Dan Raby, CBS News, 18 Aug. 2026 The students were smart, curious and desperate to escape a communist system that had smothered their families’ ambitions for decades. — Jack Dolan, Los Angeles Times, 11 Aug. 2026

Noun

Cardboard or newspaper layers can be placed under mulch to further smother weeds and enrich the soil. — Ashley Chalmers, The Spruce, 13 May 2026 The evergreen vines carpet forest floors and smother native wildflowers year-round. — Brandee Gruener, Southern Living, 20 Apr. 2026 See All Example Sentences for smother

Recent Examples of Synonyms for smother

Verb

Clancy, 36, is on trial for strangling her three children at their Massachusetts home in January 2023 before attempting suicide.

— Melina Khan, USA Today, 21 Aug. 2026
An autopsy later determined that JonBenét had been strangled to death and suffered a severe head injury.

— Encyclopedia Britannica, Encyclopedia Britannica, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of strangle

Verb

Youri Tielemans and Santos, United’s new midfield partnership, were hooked on 67 minutes, showing the extent to which Hull had stifled them.

— Liam Tharme, New York Times, 23 Aug. 2026
Opponents, however, view this as unnecessary governmental overreach that could stifle rapid AI advancement.

— Lance Eliot, Forbes.com, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of stifle

Verb

These included a child buried face down, a skeleton positioned as in a crucifixion, graves with stones placed around the skull as if to prevent biting or movement, as well as other graves with sickles and padlocks.

— Katie Hunt, CNN Money, 21 Aug. 2026
As the Danube waters shrank in Bulgaria, researchers were thrilled to find and recover a jawbone, tusks, a shoulder blade, ribs and other bone fragments belonging to an extinct woolly mammoth buried deep in the sand.

— CBS News, CBS News, 20 Aug. 2026

Definition of bury

Noun

Because this threshold sits far beyond the operational temperatures of the core, the coolant cannot flash into steam.

— Aman Tripathi, Interesting Engineering, 26 Aug. 2026
The Daily Dividend Bitcoin jumped above the $81,000 mark on Tuesday, the latest sign that the crypto rally is picking up steam.

— Alex Harring, CNBC, 26 Aug. 2026

Definition of steam

Verb

After multiple attempts to stave off its death over the decades, it is being choked by the chains and cables meant to support it.

— ABC News, ABC News, 24 Aug. 2026
Their findings prompted bans on phosphorus-laden detergents that were supercharging algae blooms choking the Great Lakes.

— Michael Hawthorne, Chicago Tribune, 23 Aug. 2026

Definition of choke

Verb

That combination, just like QIH, suppressed neuronal firing and stripped out a comparable share of synapses, but the mice came out of it with impaired fear memory.

— Jacek Krywko, ArsTechnica, 22 Aug. 2026
Factors that put people at a higher risk of severe infection include being older than 60, diabetes, high blood pressure, chronic kidney disease and being on immune system suppressing medication.

— Clara Harter, Los Angeles Times, 21 Aug. 2026

Definition of suppress

Verb

And then, with the game in the balance, Taylor’s two 3-pointers over the Valkyries — against man-to-man defense — was too much to overcome.

— Joseph Dycus, Mercury News, 22 Aug. 2026
This method could potentially be adapted for industrial manufacturing, but there were still limitations to overcome, with the biggest one being the quality of the material.

— Maryna Holovnova, New Atlas, 22 Aug. 2026

Definition of overcome

Noun

Arm moves into mainframes Arm processors have become widely used across cloud infrastructure, mobile devices and increasingly AI computing.

— Neetika Walter, Interesting Engineering, 25 Aug. 2026
That bill will likely face industry pushback, CNBC suggested, since cloud providers would bear the cost of that new compliance regime, including implementing better know-your-customer protocols.

— Ashley Belanger, ArsTechnica, 24 Aug. 2026

Definition of cloud

Browse Nearby Words

smote

smother

smothered

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Style

“Smother.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/smother. Accessed 28 Aug. 2026.

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Synonyms of smother

verb

noun

Example Sentences

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