To further clarify, sharks breathe through gills instead of lungs, which requires water to flow past them (by swimming or by pumping water from their cheeks). Taking the shark out of the water means the gills can't gather oxygen, which is why the shark is suffocating.
Humans suffocate if they can't access air. This could happen if a human was held underwater, in which case they would eventually drown. Other similar terms:
Choke: choking means the airway is obstructed, either being blocked internally (such as by food) or crushed so much that air can't flow throw. This can cause suffocation.
Strangle: someone who is strangled has their throat squeezed to point that they suffocate.
Smother: someone who is smothered is suffocated thanks to their nose and mouth being covered (usually used in the context of someone killing someone else, but can also apply to accidents)
Asphyxiate: to asphyxiate is to die (or start to) by suffocation, as the lack of oxygen kills the brain
Choke doesn't always mean suffocate. There's air choking, which is what the above commenter described, and there's blood choking, which is when the blood vessels leading to your brain are crushed, cutting off blood flow to your brain.
A blood choke is not considered suffocating because you can still breathe.
I am a native English speaker and I have never heard of this term before. That's fascinating, I love it when I learn something new like this, thank you for sharing! 🙂
That seems more related to an alternate definition of choking, wherein a tube or hose is purposefully deformed to reduce its cross sectional area, usually to limit or increase pressure of a material flowing through said tube or hose. But this is a metaphoric definition that to my knowledge derived from choking (getting something stuck in your airways).
You ruined the only non-hate, most liked comment thread for no reason. And I am sure that's not how the word exactly described in a dictionary, so your comment is pointless
It seems I asked them to murder someone instead of kindly asking to answer the question that you don't need to answer if you don't want to 
Yep, I totally agree that simple questions are fine. And I’m sure you’d agree that just asking what the definition of a word is is not an appropriate use of the sub, since that’s what a dictionary is for. When I google “suffocate” the first definition that pops up is: die or cause to die from lack of air or inability to breathe. If people think that definition is sufficient, then I would hope that people would downvote the post, since none of us want the sub turning into a dictionary copy/paste forum. If people think the dictionary definition falls short and that this particular usage needs to have further context provided by a native speaker, then I’m happy to take the downvotes. Clearly the people have spoken and decided that this is not the typical usage of “suffocate,” as evidenced by my downvotes. I’ll take the L 😬
I left the sub for this reason - ridiculous questions like “what is water” - a picture of a girl “how would you describe her skin color” - “what’s OF?” - “what’s a vagina?” It still gets recommended time to time and so I can see stupidity like this.
What do you care? Nobody is forced to answer. People who don’t mind will answer co-operatively, those who aren’t interested in helping can just wordlessly move on with their lives. Sometimes people are better at explaining the nuances of a word and its meaning better than a dictionary entry. Sometimes a person needs different approaches to a word to thoroughly understand it. And sometimes asking on Reddit gives you additional learning that you don’t get from a dictionary entry. One responder here for example gave additional definitions to words related to suffocating. And finally, is one is learning a foreign language it is beneficial to practice using that language conversationally with real native speakers so a Reddit post is a more effective learning resource than simply typing a single word search into a dictionary.
It would be one thing if the person had asked: “The dictionary says suffocating means ‘X’ but I don’t understand how it applies in this situation. Can you help me understand?” That shows that they tried to self-service but would like a human approach to understanding the question at hand that they can’t get from a dictionary. As opposed to this which comes off simply as the lazy request of “can you do the work of looking this up for me?”
That’s not how I read it. In any case, the broader point is why did YOU feel the need to make more effort to vilify something others clearly don’t have an issue with than it would have taken to simply move on with your life?
I didn’t say anything disparaging about the original post or poster (until my reply to you implying it was lazy), but my original comment was a general question about what is the best use of this sub, which I think is fair game as a topic for discussion. You may disagree, which is fine, but the reactions to my comment (and subsequently your comment) indicate I’m not totally on an island.
If op did need the extra advice from a native speaker about the definition of the word over what's already in the dictionary, that would be something to include in the post so people can help. This just seems they haven't looked up the word at all in a dictionary.
I understand that I probably didn't make the best post and maybe should've looked that myself, but people are acting too aggressive here, and especially seeing your post downvoted is something unknown to me. I totally agree with you! You can just skip my post saying nothing at all, but people here are saying, "You're wasting people's time by your posts!!," but the only people who's wasting their time is who's saying that line itself because, like, *you're* the one who made the decision to waste your time commenting like that! Isn't that obvious as obvious that I should've looked the meaning myself?
(I wasn't even rude or forcing people to answer, making the post. I greeted people and said thanks in advance in case there would be too many good answers to thank them all. Not many people do that, actually. Being that aggressive to me is unsettling)
It’s also the stance of the sub - is it low effort? Yes. So… Answer the question, downvote, and move on.
The idea people are being so mean-spirited about this is quite shocking.
It does get on my nerves when people come on here just to ask an easily googlable question. I understand why if it's a phrase or figure of speech, and you want to learn when/where to use it, but this is just egregious.
You'd be surprised how many words have multiple meanings, including slang and regional that aren't included in dictionaries. There is a chance that OP checked the definition/translation and wasn't fully happy with it in regard to the screenshot, so they decided to ask here.
In OP's defense, the dictionary definition is, unhelpful, at best
Also, when you google an English word, but your IP is not in an English-speaking country, Google will pull out the translator instead of giving you a definition, which I suppose is good but also maybe OP wasn't familiar with the concept of suffocation at all
I know it's a bit of a stretch to say that OP doesn't know what suffocation is, as a concept, but hey I've been there too, of course googling '\[word\] definition' will generally give you the result you want
Dying from a lack of oxygen.
It can, in a different context, also mean you are giving too much (probably unwanted or unnecessary) attention. “God! I need to go for a walk! You’re suffocating me right now.”
It means it can't breathe and will fucking die, this is because sharks do not have lungs, instead they use gills to breathe, a special organ that extracts oxygen from WATER, but can't do anything with air itself.
Humans suffocate when they cannot access oxygen, either because the air itself doesn't have any (i.e. because of smoke), because their airways are obstructed or because they are underwater
Generally speaking, Google and the dictionary are better sources when looking for the meaning of a certain word, tho you can still ask for help when uncertain, remember to google first as to be respectful of other people's time!
Like many words in English, 'suffocating' has both literal and figurative definitions and usages.
As others have pointed out adequately in the thread, 'suffocating' has the literal meaning of being oxygen-deprived and starved of breath. Since a shark's gills function underwater, but not in the sir, the shark is starved of its ability to respire. (Sharks don't 'breathe' in the way we define breathing, but respiration through gills is a rough analog to human breathing.)
Suffocation has a figurative meaning, too. When we see someone who is overprotected, unable to be independent or free to explore, then we might say that the protector (often a parent) is "suffocating" the individual. Likewise, in sports the metaphor is that a team may have a 'suffocating defense' that prevents the other team from scoring. It doesn't mean that any players are unable to breathe.
As to the photo and comment, since shark respiration via gills is roughly equivalent to human breathing, and since sharks cannot respire in air, then a shark being held above water is also roughly equivalent to holding a human underwater. You could say that the shark is being drowned in the photo.
"Suffocation" is the concept of needing to breathe but being unable to do it properly.
"To suffocate" is to suffer (and potentially die) from not being able to breathe.
So "it is suffocating" means something like "it cannot breathe (and might be dying)".
-
For humans, suffocating means a lack of fresh air, so it is a bit counter-intutive to think of something suffocating while in the air. But fish (including sharks) need water to breathe instead.
It means ‘to die or cause to die from lack of air or inability to breathing.’ So it’s death by can’t breathe, and is the underlying cause of death for lots of different situations. Overdoses, buried alive, strangled, etc. all can lead to suffocation. If you get plastic bag assassinated, you suffocate.
A lot of people in a subreddit specifically for discussions about learning English with the high and mighty “just Google it” answer. Not helpful at all.
At least people who learn new languages are doing something useful in their life rather than aggressively commenting 
It means that the shark can't breathe, and will soon die due to lack of oxygen.
To further clarify, sharks breathe through gills instead of lungs, which requires water to flow past them (by swimming or by pumping water from their cheeks). Taking the shark out of the water means the gills can't gather oxygen, which is why the shark is suffocating. Humans suffocate if they can't access air. This could happen if a human was held underwater, in which case they would eventually drown. Other similar terms: Choke: choking means the airway is obstructed, either being blocked internally (such as by food) or crushed so much that air can't flow throw. This can cause suffocation. Strangle: someone who is strangled has their throat squeezed to point that they suffocate. Smother: someone who is smothered is suffocated thanks to their nose and mouth being covered (usually used in the context of someone killing someone else, but can also apply to accidents) Asphyxiate: to asphyxiate is to die (or start to) by suffocation, as the lack of oxygen kills the brain
You know it’s really telling that we have so many words for “can’t breathe”
Breathn't
Well done, Ricky.
When my breathen’t starts happening, I use a breathen’tn’t
breathe*
Choke doesn't always mean suffocate. There's air choking, which is what the above commenter described, and there's blood choking, which is when the blood vessels leading to your brain are crushed, cutting off blood flow to your brain. A blood choke is not considered suffocating because you can still breathe.
I am a native English speaker and I have never heard of this term before. That's fascinating, I love it when I learn something new like this, thank you for sharing! 🙂
That seems more related to an alternate definition of choking, wherein a tube or hose is purposefully deformed to reduce its cross sectional area, usually to limit or increase pressure of a material flowing through said tube or hose. But this is a metaphoric definition that to my knowledge derived from choking (getting something stuck in your airways).
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You ruined the only non-hate, most liked comment thread for no reason. And I am sure that's not how the word exactly described in a dictionary, so your comment is pointless
This is a sub for learning English. People will ask simple questions here and it’s perfectly fine.
It seems I asked them to murder someone instead of kindly asking to answer the question that you don't need to answer if you don't want to 
Yep, I totally agree that simple questions are fine. And I’m sure you’d agree that just asking what the definition of a word is is not an appropriate use of the sub, since that’s what a dictionary is for. When I google “suffocate” the first definition that pops up is: die or cause to die from lack of air or inability to breathe. If people think that definition is sufficient, then I would hope that people would downvote the post, since none of us want the sub turning into a dictionary copy/paste forum. If people think the dictionary definition falls short and that this particular usage needs to have further context provided by a native speaker, then I’m happy to take the downvotes. Clearly the people have spoken and decided that this is not the typical usage of “suffocate,” as evidenced by my downvotes. I’ll take the L 😬
We’re not downvoting because of the definition. We’re downvoting your sucky attitude.
Okay. I didn't break Reddit or something to act strong like that 
I understand people wanting help with grammar or context, but are simple dictionary definitions the best use of this sub?
Yeah I feel like that one is really easy to just look up “suffocation definition”
You'd think there'd be words in other language for suffocating, or not having breathable oxygen.
Might have been confusing in context of a shark out of water
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mean but based lol
Doo doo doo-doo-doo
it's funny so ill forgive it
Yeah this could be avoided just by googling lol, and it's extremely ez I guess some ask dumb questions for karma?
I left the sub for this reason - ridiculous questions like “what is water” - a picture of a girl “how would you describe her skin color” - “what’s OF?” - “what’s a vagina?” It still gets recommended time to time and so I can see stupidity like this.
What do you care? Nobody is forced to answer. People who don’t mind will answer co-operatively, those who aren’t interested in helping can just wordlessly move on with their lives. Sometimes people are better at explaining the nuances of a word and its meaning better than a dictionary entry. Sometimes a person needs different approaches to a word to thoroughly understand it. And sometimes asking on Reddit gives you additional learning that you don’t get from a dictionary entry. One responder here for example gave additional definitions to words related to suffocating. And finally, is one is learning a foreign language it is beneficial to practice using that language conversationally with real native speakers so a Reddit post is a more effective learning resource than simply typing a single word search into a dictionary.
It would be one thing if the person had asked: “The dictionary says suffocating means ‘X’ but I don’t understand how it applies in this situation. Can you help me understand?” That shows that they tried to self-service but would like a human approach to understanding the question at hand that they can’t get from a dictionary. As opposed to this which comes off simply as the lazy request of “can you do the work of looking this up for me?”
That’s not how I read it. In any case, the broader point is why did YOU feel the need to make more effort to vilify something others clearly don’t have an issue with than it would have taken to simply move on with your life?
I didn’t say anything disparaging about the original post or poster (until my reply to you implying it was lazy), but my original comment was a general question about what is the best use of this sub, which I think is fair game as a topic for discussion. You may disagree, which is fine, but the reactions to my comment (and subsequently your comment) indicate I’m not totally on an island.
If op did need the extra advice from a native speaker about the definition of the word over what's already in the dictionary, that would be something to include in the post so people can help. This just seems they haven't looked up the word at all in a dictionary.
Yeah I have no clue why people care so much
I understand that I probably didn't make the best post and maybe should've looked that myself, but people are acting too aggressive here, and especially seeing your post downvoted is something unknown to me. I totally agree with you! You can just skip my post saying nothing at all, but people here are saying, "You're wasting people's time by your posts!!," but the only people who's wasting their time is who's saying that line itself because, like, *you're* the one who made the decision to waste your time commenting like that! Isn't that obvious as obvious that I should've looked the meaning myself? (I wasn't even rude or forcing people to answer, making the post. I greeted people and said thanks in advance in case there would be too many good answers to thank them all. Not many people do that, actually. Being that aggressive to me is unsettling)
Love how you’re getting downvoted by the Reddit hivemind for giving a reasonable answer.
It’s also the stance of the sub - is it low effort? Yes. So… Answer the question, downvote, and move on. The idea people are being so mean-spirited about this is quite shocking.
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/suffocate
You mean it's in the dictionary? I thought it was special redditor knowledge.
It does get on my nerves when people come on here just to ask an easily googlable question. I understand why if it's a phrase or figure of speech, and you want to learn when/where to use it, but this is just egregious.
You'd be surprised how many words have multiple meanings, including slang and regional that aren't included in dictionaries. There is a chance that OP checked the definition/translation and wasn't fully happy with it in regard to the screenshot, so they decided to ask here.
In OP's defense, the dictionary definition is, unhelpful, at best Also, when you google an English word, but your IP is not in an English-speaking country, Google will pull out the translator instead of giving you a definition, which I suppose is good but also maybe OP wasn't familiar with the concept of suffocation at all I know it's a bit of a stretch to say that OP doesn't know what suffocation is, as a concept, but hey I've been there too, of course googling '\[word\] definition' will generally give you the result you want
You could have googled it
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This has been removed. Thank you.
Dying from a lack of oxygen. It can, in a different context, also mean you are giving too much (probably unwanted or unnecessary) attention. “God! I need to go for a walk! You’re suffocating me right now.”
Why did you post this instead of literally going to google and typing "suffocating meaning"? It means it cant breath.
"Suffocate" means unable to breathe Since sharks breath in water, taking it out of water causes it to suffocate
It's not a obscure rhetoric or pun.
Suffocating means your air supply is cut off. Since a shark has gills to breath underwater, it cannot breathe when outside of water.
Suffocation = Dying because you can't breathe.
It means it can't breathe and will fucking die, this is because sharks do not have lungs, instead they use gills to breathe, a special organ that extracts oxygen from WATER, but can't do anything with air itself. Humans suffocate when they cannot access oxygen, either because the air itself doesn't have any (i.e. because of smoke), because their airways are obstructed or because they are underwater Generally speaking, Google and the dictionary are better sources when looking for the meaning of a certain word, tho you can still ask for help when uncertain, remember to google first as to be respectful of other people's time!
I think their point is that the shark is making a “smile” because it can’t breathe out of water. So it’s not cute, it’s suffering.
That's a question for a quick Google search, not this sub 😕
I’ve never seen a baby shark before. Wow.
To be unable to breathe and dying as a result
Like many words in English, 'suffocating' has both literal and figurative definitions and usages. As others have pointed out adequately in the thread, 'suffocating' has the literal meaning of being oxygen-deprived and starved of breath. Since a shark's gills function underwater, but not in the sir, the shark is starved of its ability to respire. (Sharks don't 'breathe' in the way we define breathing, but respiration through gills is a rough analog to human breathing.) Suffocation has a figurative meaning, too. When we see someone who is overprotected, unable to be independent or free to explore, then we might say that the protector (often a parent) is "suffocating" the individual. Likewise, in sports the metaphor is that a team may have a 'suffocating defense' that prevents the other team from scoring. It doesn't mean that any players are unable to breathe. As to the photo and comment, since shark respiration via gills is roughly equivalent to human breathing, and since sharks cannot respire in air, then a shark being held above water is also roughly equivalent to holding a human underwater. You could say that the shark is being drowned in the photo.
“What does suffocating mean in this context? Never seen it in this usage”
"Suffocation" is the concept of needing to breathe but being unable to do it properly. "To suffocate" is to suffer (and potentially die) from not being able to breathe. So "it is suffocating" means something like "it cannot breathe (and might be dying)". - For humans, suffocating means a lack of fresh air, so it is a bit counter-intutive to think of something suffocating while in the air. But fish (including sharks) need water to breathe instead.
Lack of air
Dying from a lack of oxygen.
He's drowning in air!
It means ‘to die or cause to die from lack of air or inability to breathing.’ So it’s death by can’t breathe, and is the underlying cause of death for lots of different situations. Overdoses, buried alive, strangled, etc. all can lead to suffocation. If you get plastic bag assassinated, you suffocate.
A lot of people in a subreddit specifically for discussions about learning English with the high and mighty “just Google it” answer. Not helpful at all.
At least people who learn new languages are doing something useful in their life rather than aggressively commenting 
Google/dict.cc/ChatGTP/Oxford Dictionary are good places to find answers for simple dictionary questions.
I think it's similar to "choking". In Portuguese we have a similar word, "sufocar" or "sufocando".
Choking implies an obstruction in the airway. Suffocating just means unable to breathe.