Definition of smothers:
(v) :
(transitive) To suffocate; stifle; obstruct, more or less completely, the respiration of something or someone.
(v) :
(transitive) To extinguish or deaden, as fire, by covering, overlaying, or otherwise excluding the air.
(v) :
(transitive) To reduce to a low degree of vigor or activity; suppress or do away with; extinguish
(v) :
(intransitive) To be suffocated.
(v) :
(intransitive) To breathe with great difficulty by reason of smoke, dust, close covering or wrapping, or the like.
(v) :
(intransitive, figuratively) to perish, grow feeble, or decline, by suppression or concealment; be stifled; be suppressed or concealed.