ahogar

v. suffocate, stifle, smother; choke, strangle, throttle; drown; suppress, quash; stalemate, bring into a stalemate (Chess)

= drown out, smother, strangle, suffocate, stifle.
Ex: A recitation of the best thought out principles for a cataloging code is easily drowned out by the clatter of a bank of direct access devices vainly searching for misplaced records.
Ex: This article outlines the preparatory stages and describes some of the problems presented by the physical conditions in a city of tents either drenched by rain or smothered by dust = Este artículo esboza las etapas preparatorias y describe algunos de los problemas que presentan las condiciones físicas de una gran cantidad de tiendas de campaña empapadas por la lluvia o cubiertas por el polvo.
Ex: Self-effacing nervousness causes the epiglottis to tighten, strangling the words in the throat and stiffening the diaphragm so that it is like pulled-out elastic unable to propel anything.
Ex: The United Nations has been accused of 'drowning in its own words and suffocating in its own documentation'.
Ex: Excessive emphasis on the need to exact payment will stifle the flow of information.
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* ahogarse = drown.
* ahogarse en un vaso de agua = make + a mountain out of a molehill, get + worked up about nothing, fret about + nothing.