affogare

From earlier *affocàre, from Late Vulgar Latin *affōcāre, alteration of Late Latin offōcāre (“to strangle, choke”), derived from Latin faucēs (“throat”). Cognate with Portuguese afogar and Spanish ahogar.

• IPA^(key): /af.foˈɡa.re/
• Rhymes: -are
• Hyphenation: af‧fo‧gà‧re

affogàre (first-person singular present affógo or affògo[1], first-person singular past historic affogài, past participle affogàto, auxiliary (transitive) avére or (intransitive) èssere)

1. (transitive) to drown (to kill by suffocating in a liquid)

   Lo affogarono nel lago. ― They drowned him in the lake.

2. (transitive, literary) to extinguish, to put out
   • c. 1900, Gabriele D'Annunzio, Francesca da Rimini, Act II, second scene:

     […] solo con la sabbia si affoga e con l’aceto si stempera

     Only with sand it [Greek fire] is extinguished, and with vinegar it is diluted

3. (transitive, literary, figurative) to oppress, to overbear, to overwhelm
   • 1835, Giacomo Leopardi, “III. Ad Angelo Mai [To Angelo Mai]”, in Canti‎, Bari: Einaudi, published 1917, lines 70–72, page 17:

     E pur men grava e morde ¶ il mal che n’addolora ¶ del tedio che n’affoga.

     And yet the paining harm weighs and bites less than the oppressing boredom.

4. (transitive, cooking) to smother

   affogato nella crema ― smothered in cream

5. (intransitive) to drown (to die by suffocating in a liquid) [auxiliary essere]

   Quasi affogò nel fiume. ― He almost drowned in the river.

6. (intransitive, figurative) to be oppressed or overwhelmed [auxiliary essere]

• affogamento
• affogarsi

• affogato