🤗 Too overprotective 😮‍💨 Hard to breathe

smothery

1 8.4

Too much care or attention that makes someone feel trapped

adjective
/ˈsmoʊðəri/

: sobreprotector

He appreciated her care, but sometimes her smothery nature became overwhelming.

Examples

Her smothery affection made him feel as if he couldn't breathe in the relationship.
In time, he'd find someone else who actually thrived on the kind of smothery attention he paid her, who loved it when he stared at her in stricken, lovesick disbelief.

Fiction book (1996)
After years of smothery attention from his parents, he longed for independence.

Synonyms

touchy-feely

vssmothery

Informal

22 7.9

Openly showing too much emotion and physical closeness that makes others uncomfortable

is overprotective and makes someone feel emotionally restricted or suffocated

Antonyms

independent

879 2.3

Not controlled by others

uninhibited

14 6.9

Expressing feelings and thoughts freely without embarrassment

How Smothering

overbearing

34 5.8

smothery

1 8.4

clingy

Informal

26 4.8

doting

12 6.8

attentive

56 3.0

Surface Forms

smothery positive

Morphology

smothery = smother (transparent) = smother + y

Adjectival -y on 'smother' yields a meaning of causing a feeling of being smothered; the emotional sense is a transparent metaphorical extension.

Etymology

Smothery comes from the verb smother and the ending -y, and smother is also used to mean 'to give too much care or attention' that takes away freedom while -y means 'full of'. So smothery describes attention or love that feels too close and makes someone feel trapped.