Picture a thick layer coming down over the top of something and staying there. A pillow over a face, a wet towel over a pan of flames, cheese sauce over a plate of fries, a hand over your own mouth, a goalkeeper's body over a ball. The layer does not hit or break anything. It just sits on top, close and heavy, and whatever is underneath cannot get out and cannot get air. Every use of smother is that same layer, and what changes is only what is underneath: a flame, a laugh, a person, a report, a shot on goal.
From the word’s history
The packet's source traces smother to Old English smorian, to suffocate or choke, with the noun smorþor meaning literally that which suffocates, and links it to the smoke family. The airless picture is the old one; the thick-covering uses sit comfortably beside it.
本包的來源資料把 smother 追到古英語 smorian（悶住、使窒息），名詞 smorþor 字面是「會把人悶住的東西」，並和 smoke 連在一起。所以「沒有空氣」這張畫面是比較老的一支。今天最常見的「蓋滿食物」用法就靠在它旁邊，兩者共用同一層厚厚的覆蓋。
Wiktionary entries supplied in this packet (kaikki:3f6f69a190036ae4:1191250977 and :1191290491)
登入就可以看每一支怎麼連回核心畫面。
原始詞典資料17 筆記錄
以下是外部詞典記錄的用法，摘錄並精簡格式，我們還沒有寫成教學內容。上面的說明才是我們自己寫的；有些用法可能上面已經講過了。
smotherverb詞源 1/ˈsməðər/
- 1
To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
- He smothered her by pressing his hand over her mouth.
- But I am Pestilence;—hither and thither I flit about, that I may slay and smother;— All lips which I have kissed must surely wither, But Death’s—if thou art he, we’ll go to work together!
- 2
To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.
- to smother a fire with ashes
- 3
To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish
- The committee's report was smothered.
- 4
cookingfoodlifestyleTo cook in a close dish.
- beefsteak smothered with onions
- 5
To daub or smear.
- And I keep quite a lot of it around, especially chocolate-covered almonds and Trader Joes minipretzels smothered in dark chocolate.
- 6
To be suffocated.
- She is smothered by the rope.
- 7
To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
- 8
to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
另外 4 個記錄的用法
- 9
to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
- 10
ball-gamesgameshobbiesTo get in the way of a kick of the ball.
- Emmanuel Adebayor's touch proved a fraction heavy as he guided Van der Vaart's exquisite long ball round John Ruddy, before the goalkeeper did well to smother Bale's shot from Modric's weighted pass.
- 11
To get in the way of a kick of the ball, preventing it going very far. When a player is kicking the ball, an opponent who is close enough will reach out with his hands and arms to get over the top of it, so the ball hits his hands after leaving the kicker's boot, dribbling away.
- 12
boxinggovernmenthobbiesTo prevent the development of an opponent's attack by one's arm positioning.
smothernoun詞源 2/ˈsməðər/
- 1
That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
- 2
That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
- Thus must I from the smoke into the smother […]
- 3
datedThat which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
- not to keep their suspicions in smother
- 4
datedThat which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
- Thus must I from the smoke into the smother, / From tyrant duke unto tyrant brother.
- Then we passed the Grand Opéra, at which our fine taste revolted; the Rue de la Paix, all in a smother with the dust caused by its improvement, at which our eyes naturally distilled water; […]
- 5
That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
摘錄自 英文維基詞典 English Wiktionary，已精簡格式；依 CC BY-SA 4.0 授權使用，改動後的內容同樣以此授權提供。