stifle
IPA: stˈaɪfʌɫ
noun
- (rare) An act or state of being stifled.
- (zootomy) The joint between the femur and tibia in the hind leg of various four-legged mammals, especially horses, corresponding to the knee in humans.
- (veterinary medicine) A bone disease of this region.
verb
- (transitive, also figuratively) To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) death by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
- (transitive, hyperbolic) To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
- (transitive, also figuratively) To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
- (transitive) To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
- (transitive, figuratively)
- (transitive) To keep in, hold back, or repress (something).
- (transitive) To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
- (transitive, agriculture (sericulture)) To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
- (intransitive) To die of suffocation.
- (intransitive, hyperbolic) To feel smothered; to find it difficult to breathe.
- (transitive) To cause (a dog, horse, or other four-legged mammal) to dislocate or sprain its stifle joint.
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Examples of "stifle" in Sentences
- Upton said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski's proposed new regulations would "stifle" investment.
- Moosa told journalists he believed the new policy, once implemented, would "stifle" the crime syndicates behind the poaching.
- Likewise, for many of Clinton's supporters, it's been seen as a call to sit down and shut up or "stifle" as Archie Bunker used to say to Edith.
- The only innovation a new consumer protection agency will "stifle" is deceptive and predatory practices that should be stifled, Blumenthal said.
- Follow the lead of the private industry which you so easily stifle and as Archie told Edith "stifle" i.e. stifle yourself and leave the private sector alone.
- DA Justice spokesman Dr Tertius Delport on Monday described this as an attempt by Justice Minister Penuell Maduna to "stifle" DA leader Tony Leon, saying it had no basis in law,
- If the turnover rate is too low at slow growth firms (below 4\%) it can "stifle" internal movement, frustrate your employees (which may lead to future turnover) and slow up individual talent development.
- And, horses can rest standing up, by locking their knee called a stifle joint in place, which explains why cowboys in the many Westerns movies we've watched are lounging at the campfire when their horses are up and willing to go.
- This boar's savage charge at the camel was within a few yards of all of us, for every one was trying to entice him to come forth; after his headlong rush out of the bush he reared so upright in his attempt to reach his clumsy disturber, which was quite frantic from deadly fear, that he succeeded in ripping it in what in a horse would be termed the stifle joint.
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