Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

stifle

UK /ˈstaɪfl̩/ · US /ˈstaɪf(ə)l/ verb, noun

Forms stifles stifling stifled stifil

  1. verb (transitive, also figuratively) To make (an animal or person) unconscious or cause (an animal or person) to die by preventing breathing; to smother, to suffocate.
  2. verb (transitive, hyperbolic) To cause (someone) difficulty in breathing, or a choking or gagging feeling. “The heat was stifling the children.”
  3. verb (transitive, also figuratively) To prevent (a breath, cough, or cry, or the voice, etc.) from being released from the throat.
  4. verb (transitive) To make (something) unable to be heard by blocking it with some medium.
  5. verb (transitive) To keep in, hold back, or repress (something). “The army stifled the rebellion.”
  6. verb (transitive) To prevent (something) from being revealed; to conceal, to hide, to suppress.
  7. verb (transitive, agriculture (sericulture)) To treat (a silkworm cocoon) with steam as part of the process of silk production.
  8. verb (intransitive) To die of suffocation. “Two firemen tragically stifled in yesterday’s fire when trying to rescue an old lady from her bedroom.”
  9. noun (rare) An act or state of being stifled.
  10. noun (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.
  11. noun (veterinary medicine) A bone disease of this region.
  12. verb (transitive) To cause (a dog, horse, or other four-legged mammal) to dislocate or sprain its stifle joint.

Synonyms

asphyxiate burke scomfish strangle suffocate choke gag throttle muffle bequiet bestill damp dampen dull hush hush down hush up mute muzzle quiet knee smother repress

Antonyms

stimulate

Etymology

The verb is derived from Late Middle English stuflen (“to have difficulty breathing due to heat, stifle; to suffocate by drowning, drown”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain. Also found in Middle English forstyflyd (“stifled, choked”, past participle).
Perhaps derived from Middle English stuffen (“to kill by suffocation; to stifle from heat; to extinguish, suppress (body heat, breath, humour, etc.); to deprive a plant of the conditions necessary for growth, choke”) + -len (frequentative suffix). Stuffen is derived from Old French estofer, estouffer (“to choke, strangle, suffocate; (figuratively) to inhibit, prevent”) [and other forms] (modern French étouffer), a variant of estoper, estuper (“to block, plug, stop up; to stiffen, thicken”) (modern French étouper (“to caulk”)), influenced by estofer (“to pad, stuff; to upholster”) (modern French étoffer). Estoper is derived from Vulgar Latin *stuppāre, from Latin stuppa (“coarse flax, tow”) (as a stuffing material; from Ancient Greek στύπη (stúpē), στύππη (stúppē) (compare στυππεῖον (stuppeîon)); probably from Pre-Greek) + -āre. According to the Oxford English Dictionary a derivation from Old Norse stífla (“to dam; to choke, stop up”) “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 (“joint between the femur and tibia of a quadruped”) [and other forms]; further etymology uncertain, probably derived from Anglo-Norman estive (“leg”), and Old French estive (“leg”) (compare Old French estival (“boot, shoe”)).
The verb is derived from the noun.

Webster’s 1913

  1. noun The joint next above the hock, and near the flank, in the hind leg of the horse and allied animals; the joint corresponding to the knee in man; --called also stifle joint. See Illust. under Horse.
  2. verb To stop the breath of by crowding something into the windpipe, or introducing an irrespirable substance into the lungs; to choke; to suffocate; to cause the death of by such means; as, to stifle one with smoke or dust.
  3. verb To stop; to extinguish; to deaden; to quench; as, to stifle the breath; to stifle a fire or flame.
  4. verb To die by reason of obstruction of the breath, or because some noxious substance prevents respiration.

Etymology [From Stiff.]

Etymology [Freq. of OE. stif stiff; cf. Icel. stifla to dam up.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stifle”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details