1
as in strangles
to be or cause to be killed by lack of breathable air
the law requires the owner of a discarded refrigerator to remove its door so that a child won't get trapped inside and suffocate
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Example Sentences
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Recent Examples of suffocates
Just like particles behave differently when observed, your business suffocates under micromanagement.
—
Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Rather than conjuring a mood of bracing inexorability, this linear focus only suffocates what might be an interesting debate, as a man of the modern world weighs his values against those of a woman raised in atavistic isolation.
—Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 7 Sep. 2025
Jodie Cook, Forbes.com, 8 Sep. 2025
Rather than conjuring a mood of bracing inexorability, this linear focus only suffocates what might be an interesting debate, as a man of the modern world weighs his values against those of a woman raised in atavistic isolation.
—Richard Lawson, HollywoodReporter, 7 Sep. 2025
Recent Examples of Synonyms for suffocates
Verb
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What worked at ten employees strangles progress at one hundred.—
Brent Gleeson,
Forbes.com,
13 Sep. 2025
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At that point, both Hsiao-Lee’s life and our perspective open up toward something more hopeful, even if plenty of turmoil — including another unbearable scene in which Chiang nearly strangles Chuan to death — continues back home.—
Jordan Mintzer,
HollywoodReporter,
4 Sep. 2025
Verb
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Hybrid-resilient architecture—local backups that can kick in like muscle memory when the cloud chokes.—
Expert Panel®,
Forbes.com,
3 Sep. 2025
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On the ground, there’s a war of grappling, chokes, and limb breaks, and Oliveira is one of the best to ever fight it.—
Jack Crosbie,
Rolling Stone,
14 Jan. 2025
Verb
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That horrible mistake reveals itself several scenes later when Katie projectile vomits into her windshield.—
Ben Rosenstock,
Vulture,
24 Sep. 2025
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The first crazy thing that happens to the movie Smurls is when a kitchen chandelier almost falls on them, though the most visceral is when oldest sister Dawn Smurl (Beau Gadsdon) suddenly vomits up pieces of glass, leaving the sink and her face a bloody mess.—
Brian Truitt,
USA Today,
5 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The line in Swift's song and The Life of a Showgirl's cover art appears to be inspired by a Victorian-era painting that depicts the scene in Hamlet when Ophelia goes crazy and falls into a stream and drowns after learning Hamlet killed her father.—
Olivia B. Waxman,
Time,
3 Oct. 2025
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If someone truly disrupts — won’t stop, drowns out others — escort them out and move on.—
Eric Preven,
Oc Register,
19 Sep. 2025
Verb
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The judge found that Google has been engaging in behavior that stifles competition to the detriment of online publishers that depend on the system for revenue.—
Michael Liedtke,
Fortune,
22 Sep. 2025
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Trump silencing free speech stifles our democracy.—
Andrew Stanton,
MSNBC Newsweek,
19 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Suffocates.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/suffocates. Accessed 6 Oct. 2025.
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