Flounder vs Stifle - What's the difference?
flounder | stifle |
A European species of flatfish having dull brown colouring with reddish-brown blotches; fluke, European flounder, .
(North America) Any of various flatfish of the family Pleuronectidae or Bothidae.
A bootmaker's tool for crimping boot fronts.
(rfi, the bootmaker's tool)
To flop around as a fish out of water.
To make clumsy attempts to move or regain one's balance.
To act clumsily or confused; to struggle or be flustered.
* Sir W. Hamilton
* 1996 , , Virago Press, paperback edition, page 136
English nouns with irregular plurals
A hind knee of various mammals, especially horses.
(veterinary medicine) A bone disease of this region.
To interrupt or cut off.
To repress, keep in or hold back.
* Waterland
* , chapter=15
, title= * {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 29, author=Neil Johnston, work=BBC Sport
, title= To smother or suffocate.
* (John Dryden)
* (Jonathan Swift)
To feel smothered etc.
To die of suffocation.
To treat a silkworm cocoon with steam as part of the process of silk production.
In intransitive terms the difference between flounder and stifle
is that flounder is to act clumsily or confused; to struggle or be flustered while stifle is to die of suffocation.flounder
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) floundre, from . Cognate with Danish flynder, German Flunder, Swedish flundra.Noun
(en-noun)External links
* (wikipedia "flounder")Etymology 2
Possibly from the noun. Possibly from (founder) or from (etyl) . See other terms beginning with fl , such as (flutter), (flitter), (float), (flap), (flub), (flip)Verb
(en verb)- Robert yanked Connie's leg vigorously, causing her to flounder and eventually fall.
- They have floundered on from blunder to blunder.
- He gave a good speech, but floundered when audience members asked questions he could not answer well.
- He is assessing directions, but he is not lost, not floundering .
Usage notes
Frequently confused with the verb founder. The difference is one of severity; floundering'' (struggling to maintain a position) comes before ''foundering (losing it completely by falling, sinking or failing).References
stifle
English
Alternative forms
* (l)Noun
(en noun)Verb
(stifl)- I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled .
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=Edward Churchill still attended to his work in a hopeless mechanical manner like a sleep-walker who walks safely on a well-known round. But his Roman collar galled him, his cossack stifled him, his biretta was as uncomfortable as a merry-andrew's cap and bells.}}
Norwich 3-3 Blackburn, passage=In fact, there was no suggestion of that, although Wolves deployed men behind the ball to stifle the league leaders in a first-half that proved very frustrating for City.}}
- Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies.
- I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.
