- present participle of stifle.
stifling
Americanadjective
adjective
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of stifling
Explanation
Something stifling makes you feel suffocated. If your mother insists on accompanying you on your first date, that will probably feel stifling. Stifle comes from the Middle English word stuffle, which means to kill by cutting off air. A really hot movie theater is stifling, as is an environment where you never get any space to yourself. This word can also be used as a noun to refer to the act of repressing or shutting something down, such as a dictator's stifling of popular protests. Either way, if something is stifling, it's preventing something else from living freely and fully.
Vocabulary lists containing stifling
The Sweltering Words of Summer
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Holes
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Refugee
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Maybe that can feel stifling for some viewers.
From Salon ● Sep. 23, 2026
Those were the kinds of stifling rallies that had defined the Dodgers’ offense earlier in the season, when they were scoring regularly in double digits.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 20, 2026
That’s creating a bottleneck at some firms, stifling not just promotions but preventing younger ambitious partners from getting bigger cases and juicier work.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Sep. 19, 2026
When the power cuts out after dark in Vientiane, families wander outside to avoid the stifling heat indoors, using cell phones to light their way.
From Barron's ● Sep. 13, 2026
Together they climbed the ladder into the dim, stifling tower room.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
