Library / English Dictionary

STIFLE

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Joint between the femur and tibia in a quadruped; corresponds to the human knee

Synonyms:

knee; stifle

Classified under:

Nouns denoting animals

Hypernyms ("stifle" is a kind of...):

articulatio; articulation; joint ((anatomy) the point of connection between two bones or elements of a skeleton (especially if it allows motion))

Holonyms ("stifle" is a part of...):

hind leg (the back limb of a quadruped)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen

Example:

The child suffocated under the pillow

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; stifle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "stifle" is one way to...):

buy the farm; cash in one's chips; choke; conk; croak; decease; die; drop dead; exit; expire; give-up the ghost; go; kick the bucket; pass; pass away; perish; pop off; snuff it (pass from physical life and lose all bodily attributes and functions necessary to sustain life)

Verb group:

asphyxiate; smother; suffocate (deprive of oxygen and prevent from breathing)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stifle"):

strangle (die from strangulation)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s

Sense 2

Meaning:

Suppress or constrain so as to lessen in intensity

Example:

Stifle your curiosity

Synonyms:

dampen; stifle

Classified under:

Verbs of size, temperature change, intensifying, etc.

Hypernyms (to "stifle" is one way to...):

bottle up; inhibit; suppress (consciously restrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior)

Troponyms (each of the following is one way to "stifle"):

choke; suffocate (suppress the development, creativity, or imagination of)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Something ----s something

Antonym:

stimulate (act as a stimulant)

Derivation:

stifler (a person who stifles or smothers or suppresses)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of

Example:

The foul air was slowly suffocating the children

Synonyms:

asphyxiate; choke; stifle; suffocate

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "stifle" is one way to...):

block; close up; impede; jam; obstruct; obturate; occlude (block passage through)

Sentence frames:

Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Sense 4

Meaning:

Suppress in order to conceal or hide

Example:

repress a cry of fear

Synonyms:

muffle; repress; smother; stifle; strangle

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "stifle" is one way to...):

bottle up; inhibit; suppress (consciously restrain from showing; of emotions, desires, impulses, or behavior)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Derivation:

stifler (a person who stifles or smothers or suppresses)

stifling (forceful prevention; putting down by power or authority)

Credits

 Context examples: 

He had risen from his position to his hands and knees, and though his leg obviously hurt him pretty sharply when he moved—for I could hear him stifle a groan—yet it was at a good, rattling rate that he trailed himself across the deck.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

When I had recovered my breath, and had got rid of a stifling sensation in my throat, I rose up and went on.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

It was involuntary, spasmodic, checked, and stifled—he noted that as he turned about.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

Jo lay motionless, and her sister fancied that she was asleep, till a stifled sob made her exclaim, as she touched a wet cheek...

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

This idea, consolatory in theory, I felt would be terrible if realised: with all my might I endeavoured to stifle it—I endeavoured to be firm.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

She strove bravely to hide it from me, but while I was kindling another fire I knew she was stifling her sobs in the blankets under the sail-tent.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Even now I weep to think that, borne down as you are by the cruellest misfortunes, you may stifle, by the word honour, all hope of that love and happiness which would alone restore you to yourself.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Sometimes the ambition of princes, who never think they have land or people enough to govern; sometimes the corruption of ministers, who engage their master in a war, in order to stifle or divert the clamour of the subjects against their evil administration.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

I was right, as appeared later; but in the meantime, the house being stifling hot and the little patch of sand inside the palisade ablaze with midday sun, I began to get another thought into my head, which was not by any means so right.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

Always inarticulate and stifled.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)