stifle
Meanings
- To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
- To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
- 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).
- To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
- To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
- To die of suffocation.
- To smother; to make breathing difficult.
- An act or state of being stifled.
- The joint between the femur and tibia in the hind leg of various four-legged mammals, especially horses, corresponding to the knee in humans.
- A bone disease of this region.
- To cause (a dog, horse, or other four-legged mammal) to dislocate or sprain its stifle joint.
Pronunciation
Word forms
Etymology
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, perhaps from 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”) + -el- (derivational infix in verbs, often denoting diminutive, intensive, or repetitive actions or events). 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 choke, stop up”) “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”. The noun is derived from the verb.