suck the air out of

English

Alternative forms

• suck all the air out of
• suck the oxygen out of

Verb

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

1. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see suck,‎ air,‎ out.
2. To dominate or overwhelm, preventing anything or anyone else from receiving attention.
   • 2007, Paul D. Houston, Alan M. Blankstein, Robert W. Cole, Out-of-the-Box Leadership, →ISBN, page 72:

     “We spent time on learning facilitation skills in order to bring all voices into their conversations, to quiet those who tend to 'suck the air' out of ...

   • 2010, Dave Montalbano, The Adventures of Cinema Dave in the Florida Motion Picture World, →ISBN:

     Modest about her achievements, Fletcher commented that “the play is the thing, not being a big movie star who sucks the air out of the room.”

   • 2011, Big String - Stories about Horses, Round-ups and Characters i Have Known, →ISBN:

     Some of that country just sucks the air out of you no matter how many times you've seen it.

3. To destroy; to cause to become lifeless and empty.
   • 2013, Tommy Housworth, Buddhist Catnaps and Broken-Down Hymns, →ISBN, page 138:

     It was this last possibility that sucked the air out of me. It was this that caused me to finally collapse back into the driver's seat of my car and tremble like I'd just come in soaking wet from a cold, hard rain, like I'd just started trying to extract the poison from my system all over again.

   • 2014, Lyla Payne, Mistletoe and Mr. Right: A Christmas Romance, →ISBN:

     To hear that Mrs. Donnelly doesn't think I'm a good match for her son, and that Brennan wasn't thinking of me in those terms in the first place, sucks the air out of me like I'm a deflating balloon.

   • 2016, Roberto Duran, I Am Duran: The Autobiography of Roberto Duran, →ISBN:

     That kills a boxer: it sucks the air out of you – sucks the life out of you, and De Jesús did not have much life left in this fight.