smothered p ppl Esp of fish, killed by prolonged entanglement in net.
1883 SHEA 25 Every time the trawl was hauled on board there was a large portion, amounting to 60 or 70 per cent., wasted, being either smothered or of uneatable kinds, or too small for the market... 1975 BUTLER 47 I got a axe and he got a big bait chopper and we used to go down underwater and chop and hack as long as we could stop down, and come up and go down again. I don't know how long we were at it—drowned, smothered. 1979 NEMEC 267 Although smothered fish has discolored flesh because of the blood suffused through it, and as such is less attractive to consumers, processing plants have not evinced any serious concern over smothered fish.
