stifle
/ˈstaɪf(ə)l/ verb C1- 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. · The heat was stifling the children.
- 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). · The army stifled the rebellion.
- 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. · Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday’s fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.
He/she/it stifles · Past stifled · Past participle stifled · -ing form stifling
Verb forms
- Base form
- stifle
- He/she/it
- stifles
- Past
- stifled
- Past participle
- stifled
- -ing form
- stifling
From the library
He stifled, therefore, the feelings of compassion that were rising, composed his features, and sat down, grim and sombre, at his desk.
All Villefort’s influence barely enabled him to stifle the secret Dantès had so nearly divulged.
“Yes,” answered Diana, stifling a giggle with an apprehensive glance over her shoulder at the closed sitting-room door.
Still, from an artificial civilization have originated wants, vices, and false tastes, which occasionally become so powerful as to stifle within us all good feelings, and ultimately to lead us into guilt and wickedness.
Other matches
Learn stifle in real texts
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