0 present participle of smother
1 to kill someone by covering their face so that they cannot breathe:
2 to prevent something from developing or growing freely:
Its near-monopoly of both generation and distribution must be broken, as it is keeping others out of the market and smothering competition.
The recession is smothering businesses and climate change grows ever more stark.
One of the reasons for the holding back of our 1940s-style public services was their smothering by bureaucracy.
There is no evidence to support the view that smothering is the cause of the majority of cot deaths.
This found siltation of the river gravels and a corresponding smothering of fish spawning reeds.
They were smothering it so badly that she kicked them out.
The concordat should not become an excuse for smothering initiative in national and regional agencies.
It has become a great big smothering blanket.
