In 4 styffle. [f. STIFLE v.1]

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  † 1.  An asthmatic complaint, with difficulty in breathing. Obs. rare–1.

2

1398.  Trevisa, Barth. De P. R., III. xv. (Tollemache MS.). As in hem þat haue þe pirre and styffles and ben pursyf and þikke breþid [L. ut patet in asthmaticis et anhelosis].

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  2.  The fact of stifling or the condition of being stifled. rare.

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1823.  Lamb, Elia, Ser. II. Amicus Rediv. Life meantime was ebbing fast away, amidst the stifle of conflicting judgments.

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1825.  Coleridge, Lett., Convers., etc. (1836), II. 188. I was ever in a stifle of my reflected anxieties.

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1904.  Westm. Gaz., 2 Nov., 1/3. The smell of trodden sods mingles with the stifle of all these poor unwashed folk in the warm moist air.

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  3.  (See quot.)

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1886.  J. Barrowman, Sc. Mining Terms, 64. Stifle, noxious gas resulting from an underground fire.

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