"'But bless your hearts and eyebrows, all this sort of thing was
nothing to my uncle! He was so well seasoned, that it was mere
child's play. I have heard him say that he could see the Dundee
people out, any day, and walk home afterwards without staggering;
and yet the Dundee people have as strong heads and as
strong punch, gentlemen, as you are likely to meet with, between
the poles. I have heard of a Glasgow man and a Dundee man
drinking against each other for fifteen hours at a sitting. They
were both suffocated, as nearly as could be ascertained, at the
same moment, but with this trifling exception, gentlemen, they
were not a bit the worse for it."

Source: Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913)

Suffocate \Suf"fo*cate\, a. [L. suffocatus, p. p. of suffocare
to choke; sub under + fauces the throat. Cf. Faucal.]
Suffocated; choked. --Shak.
Suffocate \Suf"fo*cate\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Suffocated; p.
pr. & vb. n. Suffocating.]
1. To choke or kill by stopping respiration; to stifle; to
smother.

Let not hemp his windpipe suffocate. --Shak.

2. To destroy; to extinguish; as, to suffocate fire.
Suffocate \Suf"fo*cate\, v. i.
To become choked, stifled, or smothered. ``A swelling
discontent is apt to suffocate and strangle without
passage.'' --collier.


Which definition fits the passage quoted? Or is this an outrageous bit of irony?