STIFLING • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Stifling

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/stˈaɪflɪŋ/ /stˈaɪfəlɪŋ/ Listen

verb

Stifle v. t. (past & past part. stifled; pres. part. stifling)

To stop the breath of by crowding something into the windpipe, or introducing an irrespirable substance into the lungs; to choke; to suffocate; to cause the death of by such means; as, to stifle one with smoke or dust. "Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies." "I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room."

To stop; to extinguish; to deaden; to quench; as, to stifle the breath; to stifle a fire or flame. "Bodies... stifle in themselves the rays which they do not reflect or transmit."

To suppress the manifestation or report of; to smother; to conceal from public knowledge; as, to stifle a story; to stifle passion. "I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled."

Stifle v. i. To die by reason of obstruction of the breath, or because some noxious substance prevents respiration. "You shall stifle in your own report."

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Etymology of 'Stifling'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Stifling" Quotes from Famous Books

... things that had once irritated him against her—her reserve, her fine perception, her excellent fastidiousness of taste, even that little air of coldness that became her so well. To come into her presence was like entering a fragrant English garden, after stifling for an hour in a conservatory where the air was heavy with the ...

— Brooke's Daughter - A Novel • Adeline Sergeant

... block of suffering in my breast, growing larger and larger, stifling me, strangling me. The physician that was called to treat me for the nervous crisis I was enduring, which recurred four or five times a day, injected morphine, which made me almost wild, and the great heat we have had aggravated my condition and threw me ...

— Strong as Death • Guy de Maupassant

... trees. With the first dizzy swing from tree to tree all the old joy of living swept over him. Vain regrets and dull heartache were forgotten. Now was he living. Now, indeed, was the true happiness of perfect freedom his. Who would go back to the stifling, wicked cities of civilized man when the mighty reaches of the great jungle offered peace and ...

— The Return of Tarzan • Edgar Rice Burroughs

... himself he was in a close, stifling room where candle-light from a distance threw weird shadows over the adobe walls. The witch-like voices of a woman and a girl in harsh, cackling laughter, half suppressed, were not far away, and some one, whose face was covered, was holding a glass to his lips. ...

— A Voice in the Wilderness • Grace Livingston Hill

... went to bed; but no sooner had the silence of night, like a stagnant pool, enveloped the house, than the engraver got up and climbed the wooden staircase, which creaked under his bare feet. The door of the garret stood ajar. From within came a breath of stifling hot air, mingled with the acrid smell of rotting fruit. On the broken-down bed of sacking lay the girl Tronche, fast asleep with ...

— The Gods are Athirst • Anatole France

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