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Dictionary

Words, grammatical forms and meanings linked to the ontology.

suck the air out of en · VERB

Meanings

  1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see suck, air, out.
  2. To dominate or overwhelm, preventing anything or anyone else from receiving attention.
    • Some of that country just sucks the air out of you no matter how many times you've seen it. 2011, Big String - Stories about Horses, Round-ups and Characters i Have Known, →ISBN:
    • “We spent time on learning facilitation skills in order to bring all voices into their conversations, to quiet those who tend to 'suck the air' out of ... 2007, Paul D. Houston, Alan M. Blankstein, Robert W. Cole, Out-of-the-Box Leadership, →ISBN, page 72:
    • Modest about her achievements, Fletcher commented that “the play is the thing, not being a big movie star who sucks the air out of the room.” 2010, Dave Montalbano, The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World, →ISBN:
  3. To destroy; to cause to become lifeless and empty.
    • To hear that Mrs. Donnelly doesn't think I'm a good match for her son, and that Brennan wasn't thinking of me in those terms in the first place, sucks the air out of me like I'm a deflating balloon. 2014, Lyla Payne, Mistletoe and Mr. Right: A Christmas Romance, →ISBN:
    • It was this last possibility that sucked the air out of me. It was this that caused me to finally collapse back into the driver's seat of my car and tremble like I'd just come in soaking wet from a cold, hard rain, like I'd just started trying to extract the poison from my system all over again. 2013, Tommy Housworth, Buddhist Catnaps and Broken-Down Hymns, →ISBN, page 138:
    • That kills a boxer: it sucks the air out of you – sucks the life out of you, and De Jesús did not have much life left in this fight. 2016, Roberto Duran, I Am Duran: The Autobiography of Roberto Duran, →ISBN:

Forms

SpellingFeaturesLabelsSource
sucked the air out of Tense=Past, VerbForm=Part lexicographic
sucked the air out of Tense=Past lexicographic
sucks the air out of Number=Sing, Person=3, Tense=Pres lexicographic
suck all the air out of alternative lexicographic
suck the oxygen out of alternative lexicographic
sucking the air out of Tense=Pres, VerbForm=Part lexicographic