stifle
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈstaɪfl̩/
ipa: /ˈstaɪf(ə)l/
rhymes: -aɪfəl
Forms: form: stifles
form: stifling
form: stifled
form: stifled
form: stifil
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.
ref: 1708, Jonathan Swift, Accomplishment of the First Prediction:
text: 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: [...]
ref: 1717, John Dryden, “Book XII. [The Story of Cyllarus and Hylonome.]”, in Ovid’s Metamorphoses in Fifteen Books. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC, page 425:
synonyms: asphyxiate
burke
scomfish
strangle
suffocate
glosses: To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) death by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
examples: text: The heat was stifling the children.
synonyms: choke
gag
strangle
throttle
glosses: To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
glosses: To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
synonyms: word: gag
word: muffle
word: bequiet
word: bestill
word: damp
word: dampen
word: dull
word: gag
word: hush
word: hush down
word: hush up
word: muffle
word: mute
word: muzzle
word: quiet
word: quiet down
word: quieten
word: quieten down
word: silence
word: stifle
word: still
glosses: To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
examples: text: The army stifled the rebellion.
text: I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled.
ref: 1723, Daniel Waterland, A Second Vindication of Christ's Divinity:
text: 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.
ref: 1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3-3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport:
synonyms: word: hinder
word: restrain
word: smother
word: suppress
word: throttle
word: behedge
word: guard
word: bind
word: chasten
word: check
word: contain
word: vanquish
word: cork
word: curb
word: bury
word: curtail
word: dampen
word: hamshackle
word: hold back
word: hold down
word: limit
word: repress
word: restrain
word: restrict
word: shackle
word: stay
word: stifle
word: stop
word: straiten
word: subdue
word: suppress
word: throttle
word: underbring
word: withhold
word: withstrain
glosses: To keep in, hold back, or repress (something).
synonyms: cover up
hide away
occult
secrete
veil
glosses: To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
qualifier: agriculture (sericulture)
glosses: To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
examples: text: Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday’s fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.
synonyms: asphyxiate
choke
scomfish
suffocate
glosses: To die of suffocation.
examples: text: This heat is stifling.
text: 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.
ref: 2012, Ken Catran, Letters from the Coffin-Trenches, Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited, →ISBN:
synonyms: choke
gag
glosses: To smother; to make breathing difficult.
Derived terms: word: stifle-burn
word: stifled
word: stifler
word: stifling
word: stiflingly
Related terms: die