2 uses
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Definition
to make breathing difficult or impossible — often from heat or 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.Chapter 9 — The Leech (54% in)
stifled = stuffy (lacking fresh air so that breathing is more difficult)
- And ever, after such an outpouring, oh, what a relief have I witnessed in those sinful brethren! even as in one who at last draws free air, after a long stifling with his own polluted breath.Chapter 10 — The Leech and his Patient (33% in)
stifling = (figuratively) making breathing difficult
There are no more uses of "stifle" in The Scarlet Letter.
Typical Usage
(best examples)