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  • Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 175. The verb phrase today is to

  • smother someone or something with something. Of course meaning with

  • something else. Okay. We got three meanings to cover today and we give a

  • couple of examples for each meaning. So let's look at the first one here. If a

  • person smothers one thing with another, he or she covers or spreads something

  • over it in a thick way. We especially use it with food. So let's look at the

  • examples here. He loves to smother his pancakes with

  • syrup. He makes sure to cover every visible spot on the surface. Usually it's

  • when somebody's like looking at someone else eating and they've really gone far.

  • and say, " oh my God" you're going to eat that. Boy you smothered it in in syrup. You

  • know , that's the way usually we would hear it used. Or number two here. He

  • always smothers his pudding with whipped cream. So that's another one that we

  • could say. And I'm I know myself as a kid I used to like to put whipped cream all

  • over things too. So we could say somebody could smother something in whipped cream.

  • So whatever it is. You're putting something on the surface of something in

  • a very thick way like covering all of it. And then we could say somebody smothered

  • something in something or with something. Okay. Good.

  • Well, let's look at the next one here. Or number two. To use something to suffocate

  • someone. So this is the literal meaning. Like of smother, if you smother someone

  • you put something over their face or it could be an animal too he could smother

  • an animal. So that they can't breathe and they die from being unable to breathe.

  • Remember we can't go very long without air. So they could be the quickest way to

  • kill someone. So let's let's look at some examples here. The character he played so

  • you know, hopefully we only see this in movies. The character he played in that

  • movie smothered a woman with a pillow. Yeah. It's a typical one. I've probably

  • seen that in a lot of movies over the years. I've seen that scene

  • where somebody smothering somebody with a pillow. Okay. Or number two. They

  • smothered him by putting a plastic bag over his head. Yes. This also seems like

  • it's from a movie maybe somebody from the Mafia or something put that over

  • somebody's head and tried to kill them that way. So this is the way that

  • somebody could be smothered. They were smothered by something. Yeah. Okay. Number,

  • number three here. To give someone something in abundance. Meaning a lot of

  • it , especially some sort of affection. Okay. And let's look at a couple examples

  • here. Example number one. When they found her missing child the mother smothered

  • her son in kisses. Yeah. Maybe she's so happy that she thought oh my God ( kissing sounds ) kind of

  • like that. Maybe she kissed him about 50 times or something. She smothered him in

  • kisses. Okay. Or number two. When our grandparents come to visit, they always

  • smother us in hugs. You know, maybe they hug everybody a lot and maybe these

  • parents like to hug a lot. So they smother you in hugs. So this is another

  • way that we often use it. Anyway, I hope you got it. I hope it was informative. Thank

  • you for your time. Bye-bye.

Hi this is Tutor Nick P and this is Verb Phrase 175. The verb phrase today is to

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