stifle

sti·fle ¹

1. To interrupt or cut off (the voice, for example).
2. To keep in or hold back; repress: stifled my indignation.
3. To kill by preventing respiration; smother or suffocate.

1. To feel smothered or suffocated by or as if by close confinement in a stuffy room.
2. To die of suffocation.

Origin: Middle English stifilen, alteration (influenced by Old Norse stīfla, to stop up) of stuffen, stuflen, to stifle, choke, drown, from Old French estoufer, of Germanic origin.

Related Forms:

• stifler stiˈfler noun

sti·fle ²

Origin: Middle English, possibly from Old French estivel, pipe, leg, tibia, from Latin stīpes, stick.