stifle

Meanings

Verb

• To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) death by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
• To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling.
• To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
• To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
• To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
• To die of suffocation.
• To feel smothered; to find it difficult to breathe.
• To cause (a dog, horse, or other four-legged mammal) to dislocate or sprain its stifle joint.

Noun

• An act or state of being stifled.
• The joint between the femur and tibia in the hind leg of various four-legged mammals, especially horses, corresponding to the knee in humans.
• A bone disease of this region.

Origin

• . Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (modern French étouper), influenced by estofer (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη, στύππη (compare στυππεῖον); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla “appears untenable on the ground both of form and sense”.
• The noun is derived from the verb.
• The noun is derived from Middle English stifle; further etymology Unknown, probably derived from Anglo-Norman estive, and Old French estive (compare Old French estival).
• The verb is derived from the noun.