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Verb: asphyxiate  us'fik-see,eyt or as'fik-see,eyt
  1. Deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing
    "Othello asphyxiated Desdemona with a pillow";
    - smother, suffocate
     
  2. Impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of
    "The foul air was slowly asphyxiating the children";
    - suffocate, stifle, choke
     
  3. Be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen
    "The child asphyxiated under the pillow";
    - suffocate, stifle

Derived forms: asphyxiated, asphyxiates, asphyxiating

Type of: block, buy the farm [N. Amer, informal], cash in [informal], cash in one's chips [informal], choke, close up, conk [informal], cop it [Brit, informal], croak [informal], decease [archaic], die, drop dead, exit, expire, flatline [informal], give-up the ghost [informal], go, impede, jam, kick the bucket [informal], kill, obstruct, obturate, occlude, pass, pass away, perish, pop off [informal], pop one's clogs [informal], snuff it [informal]

Encyclopedia: Asphyxiate