STIFLING

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does stifling mean? 

• STIFLING (noun)
  The noun STIFLING has 1 sense:

1. forceful prevention; putting down by power or authority

  Familiarity information: STIFLING used as a noun is very rare.

• STIFLING (adjective)
  The adjective STIFLING has 1 sense:

1. characterized by oppressive heat and humidity

  Familiarity information: STIFLING used as an adjective is very rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• STIFLING (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Forceful prevention; putting down by power or authority

Classified under:

Nouns denoting acts or actions

Synonyms:

crushing; quelling; stifling; suppression

Context example:

the stifling of all dissent

Hypernyms ("stifling" is a kind of...):

bar; prevention (the act of preventing)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "stifling"):

crackdown (severely repressive actions)

Derivation:

stifle (suppress in order to conceal or hide)

• STIFLING (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Characterized by oppressive heat and humidity

Synonyms:

stifling; sulfurous; sulphurous; sultry

Context example:

the sulfurous atmosphere preceding a thunderstorm

Similar:

hot (used of physical heat; having a high or higher than desirable temperature or giving off heat or feeling or causing a sensation of heat or burning)

 Context examples 

It was a close and stifling little shop; full of all sorts of clothing, made and unmade, including one window full of beaver-hats and bonnets.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

She strove bravely to hide it from me, but while I was kindling another fire I knew she was stifling her sobs in the blankets under the sail-tent.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Is your dorm room stifling hot?

(Hot Dorm Rooms Could Affect Students' Memory, Sadie Witkowski/VOA)

Here, its power was only a glare: a stifling, sickly glare, serving but to bring forward stains and dirt that might otherwise have slept.

(Mansfield Park, by Jane Austen)

So, stifling a natural regret at the thought of the home comforts he would leave behind him, he said stoutly, Bless your soul, I'm not superannuated yet.

(Little Women, by Louisa May Alcott)

I was right, as appeared later; but in the meantime, the house being stifling hot and the little patch of sand inside the palisade ablaze with midday sun, I began to get another thought into my head, which was not by any means so right.

(Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson)

In those days, climbing up the iron ladders out the pit of stifling heat, he had often caught glimpses of the passengers, in cool white, doing nothing but enjoy themselves, under awnings spread to keep the sun and wind away from them, with subservient stewards taking care of their every want and whim, and it had seemed to him that the realm in which they moved and had their being was nothing else than paradise.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

What my sensations were no language can describe; but just as they all rose, stifling my breath and constricting my throat, a girl came up and passed me: in passing, she lifted her eyes.

(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)

When I had recovered my breath, and had got rid of a stifling sensation in my throat, I rose up and went on.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

The room was large and stifling, and, though it was already four o'clock, opening the windows admitted only a gust of hot shrubbery from the Park. Daisy went to the mirror and stood with her back to us, fixing her hair.

(The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald)