WordWeb Online

1. In a state of asphyxia
   "A 52 year old farm worker entered an oxygen limiting silo through the top opening and was asphyxiated"

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

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: Asphyxiated