Stifle
Pronunciation
- IPA: /ˈstaɪfl/
- Rhymes: -aɪfəl
Alternative forms
Origin
From Middle English stiflen, from Old Norse stÃfla ("to dam, choke, stop up"), from stÃfla ("dam"), from Proto-Germanic *stÄ«filaz, *stÄ«filÄ… ("prop, pole, support"), from Proto-Indo-European *steip-, *steib- ("stake, picket"). Cognate with Icelandic stÃfla ("to dam up, jam, block"), Norwegian stivla ("to dam up, choke, stop"), Low German stipel ("support wood"), Eastern Frisian stÄ«pe ("stake, support").
Verb
- (transitive) To interrupt or cut off.
- (transitive) To repress, keep in or hold back.
- WaterlandI desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled.
- 1918, W. B. Maxwell, The Mirror and the Lamp Chapter 15, 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 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.
- The army stifled the rebellion.
- (transitive) To smother or suffocate.
- John DrydenStifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies.
- Jonathan SwiftI took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.
- The heat was stifling the children.
- (intransitive) To feel smothered etc.The heat felt stifling.
- (intransitive) To die of suffocation.Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday's fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.
- (transitive) To treat a silkworm cocoon with steam as part of the process of silk production.