All 4 Uses

stifle
in
Of Human Bondage
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Having settled the whole matter to his satisfaction he sought to put it out of his mind, but that was more easily said than done; and he could not prevent the regrets nor stifle the misgivings which sometimes tormented him.†
Chpt 27-28
The room was stifling.†
Chpt 29-30 *
He thought she stifled a sob.†
Chpt 33-34
Still another, and he interested Philip because his uncouth manner and interjectional speech did not suggest that he was capable of any deep emotion, had felt himself stifle among the houses of London.†
Chpt 79-80 *

Definitions:

(1) (stifle as in: stifling the urge)
to suppress (prevent something or decrease its development) -- often political freedom
(2) (stifle as in: the heat is stifling)
to make breathing difficult or impossible -- often from heat or humidity
(3) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)
Much more rarely, to stifle is used in the context of anatomy to refer to a four-legged animal's equivalent of the human knee (the joint between the upper and lower leg).