Literary notes about SMOTHER (AI summary)
The term “smother” is widely versatile in literature, serving both literal and figurative purposes. On one hand, it vividly describes physical actions such as extinguishing fires with water or blankets, suggesting a powerful force that can overwhelm and suppress a blaze ([1], [2]). On the other, it acts as a metaphor for emotional or intellectual suppression, where feelings, ideas, or even truth are deliberately restrained or stifled, as seen when characters attempt to hide their sorrow or passion ([3], [4]). This dual usage enriches narratives by linking tangible control with the complexities of internal experience, making “smother” an evocative choice across diverse literary contexts ([5], [6]).
- At first a few buckets of water or blankets or woollen clothing thrown upon a fire will smother it.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America - If another person's clothing catches fire, throw him to the ground and smother the fire with a coat, blanket, or rug.
— from Boy Scouts Handbook by Boy Scouts of America - He seemed suddenly to shrink together and broke into rapid, short sobs, which he tried at first to smother, but at last he sobbed aloud.
— from The Brothers Karamazov by Fyodor Dostoyevsky - I know I must conceal my sentiments: I must smother hope; I must remember that he cannot care much for me.
— from Jane Eyre: An Autobiography by Charlotte Brontë - A man should diffuse joy, but, as much as he can, smother grief.
— from Essays of Michel de Montaigne — Complete by Michel de Montaigne - He did not hold enough to smother the cravings of his superhuman appetite.
— from The Innocents Abroad by Mark Twain
