Dictionary

suck all the air out of en · VERB

Meanings

1. Alternative form of suck the air out of. ▸ Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see suck, all, air, out.
2. Alternative form of suck the air out of. ▸ To dominate or overwhelm.
   • No one ever understands Luella's impact. It is as though she sucks all the air out of a room. 2015, Sandra Buechler, Understanding and Treating Patients in Clinical Psychoanalysis, →ISBN:
   • The gravity of our situation sucks all the air out of the truck cab. I'm caught in a moment of deep reflection. 2015, Ryan Correy, A Purpose Ridden, →ISBN:
   • “It makes sense, because if he [Clinton] appears with Gore, it just sucks all the air out of everything; it's all people want to talk about," Carville said. 2016, Stephen J. Wayne, The Election of the Century, →ISBN:
3. Alternative form of suck the air out of. ▸ To destroy.
   • You've got to be flexible — otherwise it sucks all the air out of the movie, and you've seen the movies that feel like a filmed storyboard. 2009, Jacqueline B Frost, Cinematography for Directors, →ISBN, page 36:
   • But his next words sucked all the air out of my rationalizations. 2008, Eric Rosenblatt, The Bureaucrat of Last Resort, →ISBN, page 208:
   • Now he's too eager for the graveyard pun or, if he's trying too hard, the Billy Collins premise that sucks all the air out of a poem. 2014, William Logan, Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure: The Dirty Art of Poetry, →ISBN, page 143:

Forms