[f. STIFLE v.1 + -ER1.] One who or something that stifles, suffocates, smothers, suppresses, etc.
1642. H. More, Song of Soul, II. iii. II. xv. You stiflers now be gone. Let fall that smoring mantle.
1829. Scott, Demonol., 267. Lord-keeper Guildford was also a stifler of the proceedings against witches.
1840. Dickens, Old C. Shop, viii. My best affections have experienced, this night, a stifler.
1879. Geo. Eliot, Theo. Such, xviii. 347. We have to consider who are the stifled people and who the stiflers.
b. Thieves’ slang. The gallows.
1818. Scott, Hrt. Midl., xxiii. I think Handie Dandie and I may queer the stifler for all that is come and gone.
c. Mil. slang. = CAMOUFLET.
1836. Penny Cycl., VI. 197/1. Camouflet, or Stifler.
1875. Knight, Dict. Mech.
