dynamic
toggle menu
menu
vocabulary
1000+ books

stifle
in a sentence
grouped by contextual meaning

stifle as in:  stifling the urge

These excessive rules that stifle creativity.
stifle = suppress (prevent something or decrease its development)
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • The authorities cracked down in an attempt to stifle dissent.
    stifle = suppress (prevent something or decrease its development)
  • The book is so boring, it stifles whatever curiosity students bring to the class.
    stifles = suppresses
  • It is a stifling police state.
    stifling = making it difficult for people to express themselves freely
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 6 word variations
  • I stifled my laugh.
    stifled = suppressed
  • I cover my mouth to stifle a sob.  (source)
    stifle = suppress
  • When I finally regain enough sense, I roll the leg back and forth on the ground, which stifles the worst of it.  (source)
    stifles = suppresses
  • He leaned in toward me, seemingly incapable of stifling the smile.  (source)
    stifling = suppressing (preventing something from developing)
  • The garage had no windows and was stiflingly hot.†  (source)
    stiflingly = in a way that suppresses (prevents something or decreases its development)
  • the scholar, the wrong 'd made right, The call of the slave is one with the master's call, and the master salutes the slave, The felon steps forth from the prison, the insane becomes sane, the suffering of sick persons is reliev'd, The sweatings and fevers stop, the throat that was unsound is sound, the lungs of the consumptive are resumed, the poor distress'd head is free, The joints of the rheumatic move as smoothly as ever, and smoother than ever, Stiflings and passages open, the paralyzed become supple, The swell'd and convuls'd and congested awake to themselves in condition, They pass the invigoration of the night and the chemistry of the night, and awake.†  (source)
  • Roy stifled a laugh.  (source)
    stifled = suppressed (held back)
  • She turns and must stifle a gasp.  (source)
    stifle = suppress (prevent)
  • He checked their stifles and hocks and he commented on their gait.†  (source)
    stifles = suppresses (prevents something or decreases its development)
  • The bus wasn't air-conditioned, and the hot, heavy air was almost as stifling as the handcuffs.  (source)
    stifling = suppressing or constraining (preventing something from happening)
▲ show less (of above)

stifle as in:  the heat is stifling

It was a hot, humid, stifling day.
stifling = making it difficult to breath
Show 3 more with this contextual meaning
  • The heat and humidity are stifling.
  • Her perfume was stifling.
  • I didn't know if it was the emptiness, the stifling heat, or the fact it was only nine o'clock, but I couldn't settle into sleep despite how tired I was.  (source)
    stifling = making breathing more difficult
▲ show less (of above)
Show 10 more with 3 word variations
  • It was stifling hot inside.  (source)
    stifling = so hot and humid that breathing is more difficult
  • The disc of the sun was dull silver as though it were nearer and not so hot, yet the air stifled.  (source)
    stifled = made breathing difficult
  • Home, home–a few small rooms, stiflingly over-inhabited by a man, by a periodically teeming woman, by a rabble of boys and girls of all ages.  (source)
    stiflingly = uncomfortable (figuratively, making breathing difficult)
  • The air was hot and stifling.  (source)
    stifling = making breathing difficult -- typically due to heat and humidity
  • And she was stooped and seemed to be finding it hard to breathe, as if the air of that place stifled her.  (source)
    stifled = made breathing difficult
  • It was stiflingly warm, and the fire that was burning under the crowded mantelpiece was giving off a heavy, sickly sort of perfume as it heated a large copper kettle.  (source)
    stiflingly = in a way that makes breathing difficult
  • Sweating profusely day and night, training in the sun, unable to sleep in stifling hotel rooms and YMCAs, lacking any appetite, virtually every athlete lost a huge amount of weight.  (source)
    stifling = making breathing difficult -- typically due to heat and humidity
  • It was as if a window were thrown open, admitting a freer atmosphere into the close and stifled study, where his life was wasting itself away, amid lamp-light, or obstructed day-beams, and the musty fragrance, be it sensual or moral, that exhales from books.  (source)
    stifled = stuffy (lacking fresh air that makes breathing easier)
  • In the summer's stifling heat, the room seemed airless and threatening.  (source)
    stifling = so hot and humid that breathing is more difficult
  • Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, To whose foul mouth no healthsome air breathes in, And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes?  (source)
    stifled = suffocated
▲ show less (of above)

rare meaning

Show 1 with this contextual meaning
Swiss Bible paper, famed for its creaminess and opacity despite its thinness, had taken months to be made to order, its slurry stifling nearby rivers, and then shipped to the Hong Kong port, where someone from our Hong Kong office picked the rolls up and delivered them across the mainland China border to Phoenix Sun and Moon Ltd. in Shenzhen.  (source)
stifling = making breathing more difficult or impossible; or so hot and humid that breathing is more difficult
▲ show less (of above)