1.
Stifling heat is so intense that it makes you feel uncomfortable. You can also use ~ to describe a place that is extremely hot.
The ~ heat of the little room was beginning to make me nauseous.
ADJ
2.
If a situation is ~, it makes you feel uncomfortable because you cannot do what you want.
Life at home with her parents and two sisters was ~.
...a ~ bureaucracy.
ADJ
3.
see also stifle