Word.ws English Dictionary

stifling

/ˈstaɪflɪŋ/

stifling adjective: that stifles. Also the present participle and gerund of stifle.

Adjective

stifling (comparative more stifling, superlative most stifling)

  1. That stifles.
    • The heat was stifling; it seemed hard to breathe and the exertion of rolling over on the bed seemed too much.
    • The oppression of the cabin was stifling, and Evelyn had left her; she could not bear his absence, and she followed him.1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter I, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), →OCLC, pages 365-366

Noun

stifling (plural stiflings)

  1. The act by which something is stifled.
    • Every man who is destroyed must destroy himself. When a man stifles an admonition of conscience, he may fairly be said to sow the stiflings of conscience.1857, Henry Clay Fish, Pulpit eloquence of the nineteenth century, page 507
    • Despite this, Mott McDonald's report says: "Following the loss of employment in mining and manufacturing opportunities across the area, a lack of connectivity and accessibility to new opportunities has led to the stifling of development and inward investment.2022 November 30, Philip Haigh, “Expansion plans to restore Washington to rail network”, in RAIL, number 971, page 64

Also used as

stifling is also the present participle and gerund of stifle.

Forms of stifling

Adjective
comparativemore stifling
superlativemost stifling
Noun
pluralstiflings

Words formed from stifling

Questions about stifling

What does stifling mean?
Stifling means that stifles.
What part of speech is stifling?
Stifling can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce stifling?
Stifling is pronounced /ˈstaɪflɪŋ/.

Words near stifling in the dictionary

  1. stifler
  2. stiflers
  3. stifles
  4. stiflest
  5. stifleth
  6. stifling
  7. stiflingly
  8. stiflingness
  9. stiflings
  10. Stifter
  11. Stifters

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stifling (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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