Stiff-necked
(Stiff"-necked`) a. Stubborn; inflexibly obstinate; contumacious; as, stiff-necked pride; a stiff-
necked people. Ex. xxxii. 9.
Stiff-neckedness
(Stiff"-neck`ed*ness) n. The quality or state of being stiff-necked; stubbornness.
Stiffness
(Stiff"ness), n. The quality or state of being stiff; as, the stiffness of cloth or of paste; stiffness
of manner; stiffness of character.
The vices of old age have the stiffness of it too.
South. Stifftail
(Stiff"tail`) n. The ruddy duck. [Local, U.S.]
Stiff-tailed
(Stiff"-tailed`) a. (Zoöl.) Having the quill feathers of the tail somewhat rigid.
Stifle
(Sti"fle) n. [From Stiff.] (Far.) The joint next above the hock, and near the flank, in the hind leg
of the horse and allied animals; the joint corresponding to the knee in man; — called also stifle joint. See
Illust. under Horse.
Stifle bone, a small bone at the stifle joint; the patella, or kneepan.
Stifle
(Sti"fle), v. t. [imp. & p. p. Stifled ; p. pr. & vb. n. Stifling ] [Freq. of OE. stif stiff; cf. Icel.
stifla to dam up.]
1. To stop the breath of by crowding something into the windpipe, or introducing an irrespirable substance
into the lungs; to choke; to suffocate; to cause the death of by such means; as, to stifle one with smoke or
dust.
Stifled with kisses, a sweet death he dies.
Dryden.
I took my leave, being half stifled with the closeness of the room.
Swift. 2. To stop; to extinguish; to deaden; to quench; as, to stifle the breath; to stifle a fire or flame.
Bodies . . . stifle in themselves the rays which they do not reflect or transmit.
Sir I. Newton. 3. To suppress the manifestation or report of; to smother; to conceal from public knowledge; as, to stifle a
story; to stifle passion.
I desire only to have things fairly represented as they really are; no evidence smothered or stifled.
Waterland. Stifle
(Sti"fle) v. i. To die by reason of obstruction of the breath, or because some noxious substance
prevents respiration.
You shall stifle in your own report.
Shak. Stifled
(Sti"fled) a. Stifling.
The close and stifled study.
Hawthorne. Stifler
(Sti"fler) n.
1. One who, or that which, stifles.
2. (Mil.) See Camouflet.
Stigma
(Stig"ma) n.; pl. E. Stigmas L. Stigmata [L., a mark, a brand, from Gr. the prick or mark of a
pointed instrument, a spot, mark, from to prick, to brand. See Stick, v. t.]
