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1. Held in check with difficulty
   "a stifled yawn";
   - smothered, strangled, suppressed

1. Conceal or hide
   "stifle a yawn";
   - smother, strangle, muffle, repress
    
2. Smother or suppress
   "Stifle your curiosity";
   - dampen
    
3. Impair the respiration of or obstruct the air passage of
   "The foul air was slowly stifling the children";
   - suffocate, asphyxiate, choke
    
4. Be asphyxiated; die from lack of oxygen
   "The child stifled under the pillow";
   - suffocate, asphyxiate

See also: inhibited

Type of: block, buy the farm [N. Amer], cash in one's chips, choke, close up, conk, conquer, croak, curb, decease, die, drop dead, exit, expire, give-up the ghost, go, impede, inhibit, jam, kick the bucket, obstruct, obturate, occlude, pass, pass away, perish, pop off, pop one's clogs, snuff it, stamp down, subdue, suppress

Antonym: stimulate

Encyclopedia: Stifle