{ ||As*phyx"i*a (&?;), As*phyx"y (&?;), } n. [NL. asphyxia, fr. Gr. &?;; 'a priv. + &?; to throb, beat.] (Med.) Apparent death, or suspended animation; the condition which results from interruption of respiration, as in suffocation or drowning, or the inhalation of irrespirable gases.