suck all the air out of

English

Verb

suck all the air out of (third-person singular simple present sucks all the air out of, present participle sucking all the air out of, simple past and past participle sucked all the air out of)

1. Alternative form of suck the air out of
   1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see suck,‎ all,‎ air,‎ out.
   2. To dominate or overwhelm.
      • 2015, Ryan Correy, A Purpose Ridden, →ISBN:

        The gravity of our situation sucks all the air out of the truck cab. I'm caught in a moment of deep reflection.

      • 2015, Sandra Buechler, Understanding and Treating Patients in Clinical Psychoanalysis, →ISBN:

        No one ever understands Luella's impact. It is as though she sucks all the air out of a room.

      • 2016, Stephen J. Wayne, The Election of the Century, →ISBN:

        “It makes sense, because if he [Clinton] appears with Gore, it just sucks all the air out of everything; it's all people want to talk about," Carville said.

   3. To destroy.
      • 2008, Eric Rosenblatt, The Bureaucrat of Last Resort, →ISBN, page 208:

        But his next words sucked all the air out of my rationalizations.

      • 2009, Jacqueline B Frost, Cinematography for Directors, →ISBN, page 36:

        You've got to be flexible — otherwise it sucks all the air out of the movie, and you've seen the movies that feel like a filmed storyboard.

      • 2014, William Logan, Guilty Knowledge, Guilty Pleasure: The Dirty Art of Poetry, →ISBN, page 143:

        Now he's too eager for the graveyard pun or, if he's trying too hard, the Billy Collins premise that sucks all the air out of a poem.