stifle
Definition from Wiktionary, the free dictionary
See also: štifle
Contents
English[edit]
Alternative forms[edit]
Etymology[edit]
From Middle English stiflen, from Old Norse stífla (“to dam, choke, stop up”), from stífla (“dam”), from Proto-Germanic *stīfilaz, *stīfilą (“prop, pole, support”), from Proto-Indo-European *steip-, *steib- (“stake, picket”). Cognate with Icelandic stífla (“to dam up, jam, block”), Norwegian stivla (“to dam up, choke, stop”), Low German stipel (“support wood”).
Pronunciation[edit]
Noun[edit]
stifle (plural stifles)
- A hind knee of various mammals, especially horses.
- (veterinary medicine) A bone disease of this region.
Translations[edit]
a hind knee of various mammals, especially horses
bone disease of this region
Verb[edit]
stifle (third-person singular simple present stifles, present participle stifling, simple past and past participle stifled)
- (transitive) To interrupt or cut off.
- (transitive) To repress, keep in or hold back.
- Waterland
- I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled.
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1918, W. B. Maxwell, chapter 15, in The Mirror and the Lamp:
- 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.
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2011 October 29, Neil Johnston, “Norwich 3-3 Blackburn”, in BBC Sport:
- 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.
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The army stifled the rebellion.
- Waterland
- (transitive) To smother or suffocate.
- John Dryden
- Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies.
- Jonathan Swift
- I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.
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The heat was stifling the children.
- John Dryden
- (intransitive) To feel smothered etc.
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The heat felt stifling.
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- (intransitive) To die of suffocation.
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Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday's fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.
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- (transitive) To treat a silkworm cocoon with steam as part of the process of silk production.
Synonyms[edit]
- (to die of suffocation): See also Wikisaurus:die
- (To repress or hold back): hinder, restrain, suppress, throttle
Translations[edit]
to interrupt or cut off
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to repress, keep in or hold back
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to smother or suffocate
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to feel smothered
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to die of suffocation
Anagrams[edit]
Categories:
- English terms derived from Middle English
- English terms derived from Old Norse
- English terms derived from Proto-Germanic
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- en:Veterinary medicine
- English verbs
- English transitive verbs
- English terms with usage examples
- English intransitive verbs
- en:Horses
