Definition of "stifling" []

• Very hot or stuffy almost to the point of being suffocating. (adjective)
• Being of such a character or nature as to engender a feeling of stultification, repression, or suffocation: "The scholarly correctness of our age can be stifling” ( Annalyn Swan). (adjective)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• ""Well, it struck me, as I stood there with my head full of what we have been discussing, that the conditions of a girl's life of our own class are pleasant enough, but they are stifling, absolutely _stifling_; and not all the Emersons in the world will convince me to the contrary."
• "Through the first five games of this series, the Texas Rangers have succeeded for the most part in stifling Mr. Rodriguez, the Yankees third baseman."
• "To pay off their debt, they work terrible hours in stifling conditions at a Chinatown clothing factory."