stifle
Syllables: stif·le/ˈstaɪfl̩/US/ˈstaɪf(ə)l/
stifle verb: to make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
Verb (1)
stifle (third-person singular simple present stifles, present participle stifling, simple past and past participle stifled)
- To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
- I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.1708, Jonathan Swift, Accomplishment of the First Prediction
- 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: [...]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
- To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
- The heat was stifling the children.
- To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
- To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
- To keep in, hold back, or repress (something).
- The army stifled the rebellion.
- I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled.1723, Daniel Waterland, A Second Vindication of Christ's Divinity
- To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
- Atticus tried to stifle a smile but didn’t make it.1960 July 11, Harper Lee, chapter 15, in To Kill a Mockingbird, Philadelphia, Pa.; New York, N.Y.: J[oshua] B[allinger] Lippincott Company, →OCLC
- To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
- To die of suffocation.
- Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday’s fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.
- Synonyms:
- asphyxiate, choke, scomfish, suffocate
- To smother; to make breathing difficult.
- This heat is stifling.
- 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.2012, Ken Catran, Letters from the Coffin-Trenches, Penguin Random House New Zealand Limited, →ISBN
Noun (1)
stifle (plural stifles)
Noun (2)
stifle (plural stifles)
Verb (2)
stifle (third-person singular simple present stifles, present participle stifling, simple past and past participle stifled)
stifle meaning in Urdu, Bengali, Malayalam and Kannada
stifle in Urdu
- گلا گھوٹنا, دم گھوٹنا, سانس روکنا, دبانا, چھپانا, قابو کرنا
stifle in Bengali
- দম বন্ধ করা, দমন করা
stifle in Malayalam
- asphyxiate, suffocate, choke
- ശ്വാസം മുട്ടിക്കുക, കഴുത്തുഞെരിക്കുക, ശ്വസനം തടസപ്പെടുത്തുക, വീർപ്പുമുട്ടിക്കുക, കഴുത്തിനു കുത്തിപ്പിടിക്കുക, ശ്വാസതടസ്സമുണ്ടാക്കുക
- smother, suppress, restrain
- അമർത്തുക, അടക്കുക, അടിച്ചമർത്തുക, ഞെരിച്ചമർത്തുക, സ്തംഭിപ്പിക്കുക, ഇല്ലാതാക്കുക
- hinder, constrain, hamper
- ഞെരുക്കുക, നിയന്ത്രിച്ചു നിർത്തുക, തടയുക, കടിഞ്ഞാണിടുക, നിയന്ത്രണാധീനമാക്കുക, നിയന്ത്രണത്തിൽ നിർത്തുക
stifle in Kannada
- ಉಸಿರು ಆಡದ ಹಾಗೆ ಮಾಡು, ಉಸಿರು ಕಟ್ಟಿಸು, ಉಸಿರಡಗಿಸು, ಹತ್ತಿಕ್ಕು, ಬೆಳವಣಿಗೆಗೆ ತಡೆಹಾಕು, ಕುಂಠಿತಗೊಳಿಸು
More languagesFewer languages
- stifle in Punjabi
- ਦੱਬਣਾ dabbaṇā
Examples of stifle in a sentence
- But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.1918, W[illiam] B[abington] Maxwell, chapter XV, in The Mirror and the Lamp, Indianapolis, Ind.: The Bobbs-Merrill Company, →OCLC:
- 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.2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3-3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport:
Synonyms of stifle
30 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of stifle
| Verb | |
|---|---|
| third-person singular present | stifles |
| present participle | stifling |
| past participle | stifled |
| past | stifled |
| alternative form | stifil |
| Noun | |
| plural | stifles |
Origin of stifle
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. Also found in Middle English forstyflyd (“stifled, choked”, past participle). Perhaps derived from Middle English 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”) + -len (frequentative suffix). 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...
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.
Words formed from stifle
- stifling
- overstifle
- stifle-burn
- stifled
- stifler
- stiflingly
- stifle bone
- stifle joint
Words that rhyme with stifle
Questions about stifle
- What does stifle mean?
- Stifle means to make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
- What is stifle in Urdu?
- Stifle in Urdu is گلا گھوٹنا, دم گھوٹنا, سانس روکنا. See Stifle meaning in Urdu.
- How do you use stifle in a sentence?
- But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.
- What part of speech is stifle?
- Stifle can be a verb or a noun.
- How do you pronounce stifle?
- Stifle is pronounced /ˈstaɪfl̩/ (UK).
- What is the past tense of stifle?
- The past tense of stifle is stifled.
Words near stifle in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: stifle (page history and authors); stifle (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stifle (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stifle (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); stifle (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); ਦੱਬਣਾ (Punjabi) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
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Cite this entry: “stifle.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stifle. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.