smother

«smother» in Mova's school dictionary: to stop them breathing by covering their face, which can… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples, with 1 sentence of Mova's corpora that use it.

part of speech

verb (smother, smothers, smothered, smothering)

meaning for a pupil

1) To smother someone is to stop them breathing by covering their face, which can kill. tree →

2) To smother a fire is to put it out by covering it so no air reaches it. tree →

3) To smother something is to cover it thickly: «chips smothered in sauce». tree →

4) To smother someone with love is to give them too much attention so they feel trapped. tree →

sense in the lessons

In fire-safety lessons: smother a small pan fire with a lid or fire blanket — never pour water on burning oil; «stop, drop and roll» smothers flames on clothes. In safety, babies must not sleep under heavy blankets or with pillows because they could be smothered. In science, fire needs oxygen, so smothering stops it. Phrases: «smother the flames», «smothered in».

examples

• Put a lid on the pan to smother the fire. tree →
• Never put plastic bags near babies; they could smother them. tree →
• The pancakes were smothered in syrup. tree →
• Rolling on the ground smothers flames on your clothes. tree →
• Her parents smothered her with hugs when she came home. tree →
• Snow smothered the garden. tree →
• Then the Fairy threw her arms round the Princess’s neck, and nearly smothered her with kisses, saying: tree →

note

Past: «smothered». Pronounced SMUH-ther. Close to «suffocate». Fire needs heat, fuel and oxygen (the fire triangle); smothering takes away the oxygen.

In the corpora

• Damaged cables, hot plugs and chargers smothered under bedding are warning signs of a fault that can start a fire.

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «smother» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.