[f. STIFLE v.1 + -ING2.] That stifles or tends to stifle; suffocating, smothering, choking.
a. 1560. Phaër, Æneid, VIII. (1562), A a iiij b. A cloud of stifling stinkinge smoke.
1602. Marston, Antonio’s Rev., IV. iv. Then death, like to a stifling incubus, Lie on my bosome.
1633. P. Fletcher, Purple Isl., II. xl. When the Chanel’s stopt with stifeling mire.
1795. Southey, Joan of Arc, VIII. 593. The soil, that trampled late By multitudes, sent up its stifling clouds Of dust.
1863. Geo. Eliot, Romola, xxxvi. As a strong body struggles against fumes with the more violence when they begin to be stifling.
b. Of hot or close air, a close room, etc.: Producing the sensation of suffocation; in which one breathes with difficulty; oppressive to the lungs. † Also quasi-adv., in stifling hot.
1737. [S. Berington], G. di Lucca’s Mem. (1738), 105. The Weather was stifling hot.
1748. Anson’s Voy., II. v. 184. A most intense and stifling heat.
1832. Ht. Martineau, Ireland, 120. The heat was stifling, from many sleepers being collected within a small space.
1899. Lady M. Verney, Verney Mem., IV. 281. A stifling cell in Newgate.
c. fig.
1584–7. Greene, Carde of Fancie (1593), C iij. The stiffeling stormes of vnbrideled fancie.
1649. Milton, Eikon., xxvii. 514. A stifling and obstructing evil that hath no vent.
1884. R. Paton, Scott. Ch., x. 104. Even with Bede we come into the stifling atmosphere of legend and myth, and after him silence and darkness reign.
c. 1900. Bridges, La Gloire de Voltaire, Poems (1912), 384. Let your unwholesome flattery flow ungrudged, And with ungrudging measure shall men pour Their stifling homage back.
† d. Stifling grass, the Royal Fern, Osmunda regalis.
1692. A. Symson, Descr. Galloway (1823), 78. They call this plant also by the name of stifling-grasse.
Hence Stiflingly adv.
1839. H. Rogers, Ess. (1860), II. 149. They forget that it is possible for perfumes to be as stiflingly strong as ill odours.
1887. Rider Haggard, Jess, xxiii. The air was stiflingly hot.
