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Webster's Dictionary (1865)

2 entries under this word

Stifle

Stī'fle, v. t.

verbtransitive

(stī'fl), v. t. [imp. & p. p. STIFLED; p. pr. & vb. n. STIFLING.] [Diminutive of stive. Cf. Icel. stîfla, styfla, to repress, styfa, to cut off, Prov. Eng. stife, suffocating vapor, stify, stifling.]

Sense 1. To stop the breath of by crowding something into the windpipe, or introducing an irrespirable substance into the lungs; to choke; as, to stifle one with smoke or dust.

Sense 2. To stop; to extinguish; to deaden; to quench; as, to stifle the breath; to stifle a fire or flame.

Sense 3. To suppress the manifestation or report of; to conceal; to destroy; as, to stifle a story; to stifle passion or grief; to stifle convictions.

Every reasonable man will pay a tax with cheerfulness for stifling a civil war in its birth. Addison.

Stī'fle, n.

noun

n. [From stiff.] 1. (Far.) The joint on the hind leg of a horse next to the flank, and corresponding to the knee in man;—called also the stifle-joint.

Sense 2. A disease in the knee-pan of a horse or other animal.

Stifle-bone, a small bone of the hind leg of a horse, and answering to the knee-pan in man.