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To enter upon, or take up again. Reason resumed her place, and Passion fled. Dryden.

bring, carry, send, or turn, back; as, to return a borrowed book, or a hired horse. Both fled attonce, ne ever back returned eye. Spenser.

The act or process of making the grooves in a rifled cannon or gun barrel.

to make uneven by agitation or commotion. The fantastic revelries . . . that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile. I. Taylor. She smoothed the ruffled seas. Dryden.

flees from danger, duty, restraint, etc.; a fugitive. Thou runaway, thou coward, art thou fled Shak.

Calm; placid; undisturbed; unruffled; as, a serene aspect; a serene soul. Milton.

With unruffled temper; coolly; calmly. Prior.

To remove or introduce by artificial confusion. It was contrived by your enemies, and shuffled into the papers that were seizen. Dryden. To shuffe off, to push off; to rid one's self of. -- To shuffe up, to throw together in hastel to make up or form in confusion or with fraudulent disorder; as, he shuffled up a peace…

absence of sound or noise; absolute stillness. I saw and heared; for such a numerous host Fled not in silence through the frighted deep. Milton.

A loose edging to any part of a dress. [Obs.] A narrow lace, or a small skirt of ruffled linen, which runs along the upper part of the stays before, and crosses the breast, being a part of the tucker, is called the modesty piece. Addison.

A spongy, semivitrifled substance which miners or smelters mix with the ores of metals to prevent their fusion. [Written also slakin.]

Gently flowing; moving equably; not ruffled or obstructed; as, a smooth stream.

Having a bore of perfectly smooth surface; -- distinguished from rifled. -- n.

To be suffocated or stifled.

h awkward extension and motions of the limbs; to scramble in creeping. The birds were not fledged; but upon sprawling and struggling to get clear of the flame, down they tumbled. L'Estrange.

Unfledged; unfeathered; as, a squab pigeon. King.

A young chicken before it is fully fledged. [Prov. Eng.]

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.

To be stifled or suffocated.

To stifle, choke, or suffocate in any manner. Shall I not then be stifled in the vault, . . . And there die strangled ere my Romeo comes Shak.