to smother one's anger
- idiom
- Informal
:
reprimir la ira
- She clenched her fists, desperately trying to smother her anger in front of the children.
Examples
-
It's not healthy to always smother one's anger instead of expressing it calmly.
-
He tried to smother his anger during the meeting.
-
Despite his frustration, he managed to smother his anger during the meeting.
-
Don't smother one's anger with distractions!
-
Despite his frustration, he managed to smother his anger during the meeting.
-
She clenched her fists, desperately trying to smother her anger in front of the children.
-
It's not healthy to always smother one's anger instead of expressing it calmly.
Synonyms
88
5.8
To hold back feelings or reactions
63
4.2
Make a feeling or action less strong
49
5.3
To hold back a feeling or reaction so it does not show
24
5.6
To keep strong feelings inside instead of telling others
8
7.2
To make someone less angry or upset
4
7.0
Stop yourself from showing a feeling when you want to cry
2
7.7
To stop yourself from showing strong feelings like sadness or anger
1
9.5
To hide your true feelings or plans with a false expression
To keep feelings inside instead of showing them
Antonyms
How Suppressed
- Informal
49
5.3
72
4.6
108
4.2
1
4.4
Surface Forms
Morphology
The verb 'smother' literally means to stifle or restrain and 'anger' is used in its basic emotional sense, so the phrase 'smother one's anger' is directly derivable as 'suppress/conceal one's anger.' This is a straightforward compositional pattern (verb + emotion) found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituents should understand it.
Etymology
The phrase smother one's anger comes from the image of putting a blanket over a small fire to stop it from burning. By smothering the fire you cover it so the flames go out, and in the same way you cover anger to keep it inside, so the phrase means 'to hide or hold in your anger'.