(~s, suffocating, ~d)
1.
If someone ~s or is ~d, they die because there is no air for them to breathe.
He either ~d, or froze to death...
They were ~d as they slept.
VERB: V, be V-ed
suffocation
Many of the victims died of suffocation.
N-UNCOUNT
2.
If you say that you are suffocating or that something is suffocating you, you mean that you feel very uncomfortable because there is not enough fresh air and it is difficult to breathe.
That’s better. I was suffocating in that cell of a room...
The airlessness of the room ~d her.
VERB: V, V n
3.
You say that a person or thing is suffocating, or that something is suffocating them, when the situation that they are in does not allow them to act freely or to develop.
After a few weeks with her parents, she felt she was suffocating...
The governor’s proposals would actually cost millions of jobs and ~ the economy.
VERB: V, V n