# stifle
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation) IPA: /ˈstaɪfl̩/
* (General American) IPA: /ˈstaɪf(ə)l/
* Audio (Southern England):(file)
* Rhymes: -aɪfəl
* Hyphenation: stif‧le

### Etymology 1

The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, perhaps from stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to extinguish, suppress (body heat, breath, humour, etc.); to deprive a plant of the conditions necessary for growth, choke”) + -el- (derivational infix in verbs, often denoting diminutive, intensive, or repetitive actions or events). Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (“to choke, strangle, suffocate; (figuratively) to inhibit, prevent”) [and other forms] (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (“to block, plug, stop up; to stiffen, thicken”) (modern French étouper (“to caulk”)), influenced by estofer (“to pad, stuff; to upholster”) (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”) (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē) (compare στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla (“to dam; to choke, stop up”) “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”.
The noun is derived from the verb.

#### Verb

stifle (third-person singular simple present stifles, present participle stifling, simple past and past participle stifled)
* (transitive, also figuratively) To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) death by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
    Synonyms: asphyxiate, burke, scomfish, strangle, suffocate
** 1708, Jonathan Swift, Accomplishment of the First Prediction:I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.
** 1717, John Dryden, “Book XII. [The Story of Cyllarus and Hylonome.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 425:And while her Hand the ſtreaming Blood oppos'd; / Join'd Face to Face, his Lips with hers ſhe clos'd. / Stifled with Kiſſes, a ſweet Death he dies; / She fills the Fields with undiſtinguiſh'd Cries: [...]
* (transitive, hyperbolic) To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
    Synonyms: choke, gag, strangle, throttle
    The heat was stifling the children.
* (transitive, also figuratively) To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
* (transitive) To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
    Synonyms: gag, muffle; see also Thesaurus:make silent
* (transitive, figuratively)
** (transitive) To keep in, hold back, or repress (something).
    Synonyms: hinder, restrain, smother, suppress, throttle; see also Thesaurus:curb
    The army stifled the rebellion.
*** 1723, Daniel Waterland, A Second Vindication of Christ's Divinity:I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled.
*** 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
*** 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3-3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport:In fact, there was no suggestion of that, although Wolves deployed men behind the ball to stifle the league leaders in a first-half that proved very frustrating for City.
** (transitive) To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
    Synonyms: cover up, hide away, occult, secrete, veil
* (transitive, agriculture (sericulture)) To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
* (intransitive) To die of suffocation.
    Synonyms: asphyxiate, choke, scomfish, suffocate
    Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday’s fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.
* (intransitive, hyperbolic) To smother; to make breathing difficult.
    Synonyms: choke, gag
    This heat is stifling.
** 2012, Ken Catran, Letters from the Coffin-Trenches, Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited, →ISBN:Nobody has shaved or changed clothes for a week, the heat stifles and the flies are everywhere. There is little water but we do not expect to be here long. This is not much of a letter, Jess. The mailbag goes down our trench once a day. I must finish because it stops for no one.

##### Alternative forms

* stifil (obsolete, 16th c.)

##### Derived terms

* stifle-burn
* stifled (adjective)
* stifler
* stifling (adjective, noun)
* stiflingly

##### See also

* Thesaurus:die

#### Noun

stifle (plural stifles)
* (rare) An act or state of being stifled.

##### Translations
### Etymology 2

The noun is derived from Middle English stifle (“joint between the femur and tibia of a quadruped”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, probably derived from Anglo-Norman estive (“leg”), and Old French estive (“leg”) (compare Old French estival (“boot, shoe”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

#### Noun

stifle (plural stifles)
* (zootomy) The joint between the femur and tibia in the hind leg of various four-legged mammals, especially horses, corresponding to the knee in humans.
    Synonym: stifle joint
* (veterinary medicine) A bone disease of this region.

##### Derived terms

* stifle bone
* stifle joint

##### Translations
#### Verb

stifle (third-person singular simple present stifles, present participle stifling, simple past and past participle stifled)
* (transitive) To cause (a dog, horse, or other four-legged mammal) to dislocate or sprain its stifle joint.

##### Derived terms

* stifling (noun)

##### Translations
### Notes

* ↑ From C[harles] J[ames] Korinek, A[lbie] W[illiam] Korinek (1915) “Diseases of the Horse: Cause, Symptoms and Treatment”, in Diseases of Domestic Animals and Poultry: Their Cause, Symptoms and Treatment, Portland, Or.: Korinek Remedy Company, →OCLC, page 10.

### References

* ↑ “stuflen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “-el-, suf.(3)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* ↑ “stuffen, v.(2)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
* 1 2 “stifle, v.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020; “stifle$^1$, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “stifle, n.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020.
* ↑ “stifle, n.(1)”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.; compare “stifle, n.$^1$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2020: “Of obscure origin”; “stifle$^1$, n.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
* ↑ “stifle, v.$^2$”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, March 2021.

### Further reading

* asphyxia on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* stifle joint on Wikipedia.Wikipedia
* Douglas Harper (2001–2025) “stifle”, in Online Etymology Dictionary.

### Anagrams

* flites, elfist, filets, fistle, itself, fliest, it self