Smother vs Muffled - What's the difference?
smother | muffled |
To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of.
To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air: as, to smother a fire with ashes.
To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish; stifle; cover up; conceal; hide: as, the committee's report was smothered.
In cookery: to cook in a close dish: as, beefsteak smothered with onions.
To daub or smear.
To be suffocated.
To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
Of a fire: to burn very slowly for want of air; smolder.
Figuratively: to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.
(soccer) To get in the way of a kick of the ball
* {{quote-news
, year=2011
, date=December 27
, author=Mike Henson
, title=Norwich 0 - 2 Tottenham
, work=BBC Sport
(Australian rules football) 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.
That which smothers or appears to smother, particularly
# Smoldering; slow combustion
# Cookware used in such cooking
# The state of being stifled; suppression.
#* Francis Bacon
# Stifling smoke; thick dust.
# (Australian rules football) The act of smothering a kick (see above).
(muffle)
Anything that mutes or deadens sound.
A warm piece of clothing for the hands.
A kiln or furnace, often electric, with no direct flames (a muffle furnace)
The bare end of the nose between the nostrils, especially in ruminants.
To wrap (a person, face etc.) in fabric or another covering, for warmth or protection; often with up .
* Addison
* Dryden
* Arbuthnot
To wrap up or cover (a source of noise) in order to deaden the sound.
To mute or deaden (a sound etc.).
* 1999 , (George RR Martin), A Clash of Kings , Bantam 2011, p. 397:
(dated) To speak indistinctly, or without clear articulation.
(dated) To prevent seeing, or hearing, or speaking, by wraps bound about the head; to blindfold; to deafen.
As verbs the difference between smother and muffled
is that smother is to suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of while muffled is (muffle).As a noun smother
is that which smothers or appears to smother, particularly .smother
English
Alternative forms
* (l) (obsolete)Etymology 1
From (etyl) smothren, smortheren, alteration (due to smother, .Verb
(en verb)citation, page= , passage=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.}}
Etymology 2
From (etyl) smother, .Noun
(en noun)- not to keep their suspicions in smother
- (Shakespeare)
References
*Anagrams
* *muffled
English
Verb
(head)muffle
English
Noun
(en noun)Verb
(muffl)- The face lies muffled up within the garment.
- He muffled with a cloud his mournful eyes.
- muffled up in darkness and superstition
- to muffle the strings of a drum, or that part of an oar which rests in the rowlock
- The singer's voice was muffled by the thick walls, yet Tyrion knew the verse.