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.
