Sentence:  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 <WSD>stifled</WSD> him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells. 
Meaning of the word marked with <WSD> tags:  To repress, keep in or hold back.