Obs. [a. OF. estofer (mod.F. étouffer). = Pr. estofar: of obscure origin.]
1. trans. To stifle, suffocate.
1387. Trevisa, Higden (Rolls), VI. 289. For aȝenst an hondred of Egbert his knyȝtes, þat were pale men and lene, come a þowsand þat were rody and fat, and were raþer i-stuffed [L. suffocandi] wiþ swoot þan with blood. Ibid., 149. A monke … fil doun of a brigge into a water, and was i-stuffed [v.r. y-stoffed; L. suffocatus est]. Ibid. (1398), Barth. De P. R., V. xxiv. (Bodl. MS.). And ȝif þe matere is colerike and woode it stuffeþ þe beest & sleeþ anon.
c. 1460. Brut, cxxxiii. 138 (MS. Douce 323). Þere was grete hete … þat al stuffed [c. 1400 stuffled: see STIFLE v. 1 b] was.
1530. Palsgr., 741/2. I stuffe a man with stynkynge savour, je empunaysis. Ibid. I stuffe one up, I stoppe his breathe, je suffoque. I wyll take the ayre, I was almoste stuffed up in the prease.
1612. T. Taylor, Comm. Titus i. 6. (1619), 107. He that hath beene in a noysome place is stuffed.
1636. Featly, Clavis Myst., xl. 618. We all that have lived in the pleasures of sinne, have our senses stuffed and debilitated.
2. intr. To become out of breath. Sc.
c. 1470. Henry, Wallace, V. 285. His hors stuffyt, for the way was depe and lang.
c. 1470. Golagros & Gaw., 830. Quhen he is stuffit, than strike.
3. To render stifling.
1662. Boyle, Def. Doctr. Spring Air, III. xviii. 81. [The Air] may thereby become sometimes more stufft, and sometimes more destitute of adventitious Exhalations.
