Verb

(stifl)

To interrupt or cut off.

To repress, keep in or hold back.

* Waterland

I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled .

* , chapter=15

, title= 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.}}

* {{quote-news, year=2011, date=October 29, author=Neil Johnston, work=BBC Sport

, title= 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.}}

To smother or suffocate.

* (John Dryden)

Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies.

* (Jonathan Swift)

I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.

To feel smothered etc.

To die of suffocation.

To treat a silkworm cocoon with steam as part of the process of silk production.

Verb

(en verb)

To make quiet or put at rest; to pacify or appease; to quell; to calm.

to allay popular excitement

to allay the tumult of the passions

To alleviate; to abate; to mitigate.

to allay the severity of affliction or the bitterness of adversity

(obsolete) To subside, abate, become peaceful.

* 1526 , William Tyndale, trans. Bible , Mark IV:

And the wynde alayed , and there folowed a greate calme: and he sayde unto them: why are ye fearfull?

* Shakespeare

When the rage allays .

(archaic) To mix (metals); to mix with a baser metal; to alloy; to deteriorate.

(Fuller)