stifling

His mother’s stifling love is more difficult to bear than her hostility.

He was his own person, independent from the stifling memories that had hung over him.

“An opioid overdose,” he writes, “shuts down the respiratory system, stifling breath, and life itself.”

Critics have also accused the ZANU-PF -- in power since independence in 1980 -- of stifling democracy and dissent in the former British colony.

"The authorities must stop stifling peaceful protests" ahead of the elections and "protect the right to protest", Amnesty said in a statement.