Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

smother

UK /ˈsmʌðə/ · US /ˈsməðər/ verb, noun

Forms smothers smothering smothered smoother

  1. verb (transitive) To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone. “He smothered her by pressing his hand over her mouth.”
  2. verb (transitive) To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air. “to smother a fire with ashes”
  3. verb (transitive) To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish “The committee's report was smothered.”
  4. verb (transitive, cooking) To cook in a close dish. “beefsteak smothered with onions”
  5. verb (transitive) To daub or smear.
  6. verb (intransitive) To be suffocated. “She is smothered by the rope.”
  7. verb (intransitive) To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
  8. verb (intransitive, of a fire) to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
  9. noun Smoldering; slow combustion.
  10. noun Cookware used in such cooking.
  11. noun (dated) The state of being stifled; suppression.
  12. noun (dated) Stifling smoke; thick dust.
  13. noun (Australian rules football) The act of smothering a kick (see verb section).

Synonyms

suffocate choke stifle cover up conceal hide clutter jumble muddle fuddle mare's nest welter surround asphyxiate strangle muffle repress put out

Antonyms

ventilate release

Etymology

From Middle English smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”, noun)) of Middle English smoren (“to smother”), from Old English smorian (“to smother, suffocate, choke”), from Proto-West Germanic *smorōn, from Proto-Germanic *smurōną (“to suffocate, strangle”), probably related to *smallijan (“to burn”) or Old English smoca (“smoke”).
Cognate with Middle Low German smoren, smurten (“to choke, suffocate”), West Flemish smoren (“to smoke, reek”), Dutch smoren (“to suffocate, smother", also "to stew, simmer”), German schmoren (“to stew, simmer, braise”).

From Middle English smother, smorther (“a suffocating vapour, dense smoke”), from Old English smorþor (“smoke”, literally “that which suffocates”), from smorian (“to suffocate, choke”) + -þor (instrumental suffix).

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To destroy the life of by suffocation; to deprive of the air necessary for life; to cover up closely so as to prevent breathing; to suffocate; as, to smother a child.
  2. verb To affect as by suffocation; to stife; to deprive of air by a thick covering, as of ashes, of smoke, or the like; as, to smother a fire.
  3. verb To be suffocated or stifled.
  4. verb To burn slowly, without sufficient air; to smolder.

Etymology [OE. smotheren; akin to E. smoor. See Smoor.]

Etymology [OE. smorther. See Smother, v. t.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “smother”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details