stifled

[ stahy-fuhld ]

adjective

1. quelled, crushed, or ended by force:

   The activist has been in and out of detention as she continues to call attention to her country's stifled uprising.

2. suppressed, repressed, or inhibited:

   My foot slipped, and with a stifled shriek I found myself grasping desperately for a handhold.

   One version of me grew up as expected, appearing as a confident adult to the outside world; the other remained a stifled, insecure child.

3. deprived of air or of the ability to breathe:

   The light is mixed with the dust floating in the stifled hut, where the air inside never moves.

   When I see that picture of the stifled refugees hidden in the van, I don’t understand the heartlessness that permits such a thing.

verb

1. the simple past tense and past participle of stifle ¹.

Other Words From

• un·sti·fled adjective

Word History and Origins

Origin of stifled¹

stifle ¹( def ) + -ed ²

Example Sentences

To avoid stifling the creation and growth of new Internet companies, lawmakers should limit new requirements to large companies and refrain from the knee-jerk reaction of revoking it all together.

From Fortune

Jung genuinely wanted to help Pauli become more aware of his stifled feelings.

From Nautilus

Against the Cowboys in Week 7, the line produced four of the team’s six total sacks and stifled a Dallas offense that was already reeling.

From Washington Post

According to our guests, Google and other major platform companies may be hurting democracy and stifling the economy.

From Fortune

In addition to stifling competition by paying off companies like Apple to make its search engine the default on most devices, Google, Weinberg argues, is ultimately contributing to the nation’s alarming divisiveness with its “filter bubble.”

From Fortune

One gets the sense that these are the words Sotomayor stifled, or perhaps drafted and circulated, in Fisher.

From The Daily Beast

Lukashenko, shaped by the colonial experience, stifled their project in infancy.

From The Daily Beast

Stifled by fear, our leaders lose perspective and cease being authentic and vulnerable.

From The Daily Beast

And did they bequeath to the military the task of rescuing the democratic impulse stifled by a pharaoh with an Islamist face?

From The Daily Beast

Did you feel like when you were acting as the first lady of France, it stifled you artistically?

From The Daily Beast

But its voice was soon stifled, and its children were rewarded for their abnegation by punishment, martyrdom and death.

From Project Gutenberg

It seemed a long time, but the watchers knew that something was going to happen and stifled their impatience.

From Project Gutenberg

She wrung her slender hands together, as if in pain, then they fell apart, and a stifled cry came from her lips.

From Project Gutenberg

This emotion of joy coming suddenly in the midst of his fury melted him into a sobbing torrent of tears, and stifled words.

From Project Gutenberg

From the groans and stifled cries it was too plain they left dead and dying in their course.

From Project Gutenberg

Related Words

• delicate
• dim
• distant
• dull
• far-off
• gentle
• hazy
• inaudible
• mild
• muffled
• muted
• remote
• slight
• soft
• soothing
• vague
• weak