Smother

[Slava]

From dictionary.com:

verb (used with object)
1. to stifle or suffocate, as by smoke or other means of preventing free breathing.
2. to extinguish or deaden (fire, coals, etc.) by covering so as to exclude air.
3. to cover closely or thickly; envelop: to smother a steak with mushrooms.
4. to suppress or repress: to smother feelings.
5. Cookery. to steam (food) slowly in a heavy, tightly closed vessel with a minimum of liquid: smothered chicken and onions.

verb (used without object)
6. to become stifled or suffocated; be prevented from breathing.
7. to be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.

noun
8. dense, stifling smoke.
9. a smoking or smoldering state, as of burning matter.
10. dust, fog, spray, etc., in a dense or enveloping cloud.
11. an overspreading profusion of anything: a smother of papers.

c.1200, "to suffocate with smoke," from smorthre (n.) "dense, suffocating smoke" (c.1175), from stem of O.E. smorian "to suffocate, choke," possibly connected to smolder. Meaning "to kill by suffocation" is from 1548; sense of "to extinguish a fire" is from 1591. Sense of "stifle, repress" is first recorded 1579; meaning "to cover thickly (with some substance)" is from 1598.
Online Etymology Dictionary

I don't think I've ever come across the noun use. I've always thought of this as a verb.

Has anyone else noticed that dictionary.com no longer uses the terms transitive and intransitive?

[saparris]

Has anyone else noticed that dictionary.com no longer uses the terms transitive and intransitive?

I had not noticed. Has there been a recent change to used with an object and used without an object?

[LukeJavan8]

And who could make such a change???

[saparris]

And who could make such a change???

Someone who either doesn't know what transitive and intransitive mean--or thinks we don't.

[LukeJavan8]

But we don't have a national grammar sydicate
as does France, and which I mentioned a couple days
ago in the thread on Francophone.

[saparris]

Privately run dictionary sites can change their nomenclature. That's not changing the rules of language.

[LukeJavan8]

Like Wiki?
Or privately run word forums??

[saparris]

I'm sure that Wiki has rules format and content, as do most sites that allow postings.

Obviously, no offensive language, etc. Transitive or used with an object are synonymous, so it's up to dictionary.com as to which is used.

However, they can't just decide that a word means something it doesn't. Anyway, I think most dictionary sites are based on Webster's Third International (or whatever number they're up to). Webster's Collegiate is a condensed version of the larger one.

[LukeJavan8]

You are such a lexicon of interesting facts.

[saparris]

You are such a lexicon of interesting facts.

It's a trivial pursuit at best.

[LukeJavan8]

I have my little black book of useless facts to use
at cocktail parties, as well.