stiff

[stif] adjective, stiff·er, stiff·est, noun, adverb, verb
adjective
1.
rigid or firm; difficult or impossible to bend or flex: a stiff collar.
2.
not moving or working easily: The motor was a little stiff from the cold weather.
3.
(of a person or animal) not supple; moving with difficulty, as from cold, age, exhaustion, or injury.
4.
strong; forceful; powerful: stiff winds; The fighter threw a stiff right to his opponent's jaw.
5.
strong or potent to the taste or system, as a beverage or medicine: He was cold and wanted a good stiff drink.
6.
resolute; firm in purpose; unyielding; stubborn.
7.
stubbornly continued: a stiff battle.
8.
firm against any tendency to decrease, as stock-market prices.
9.
rigidly formal; cold and unfriendly, as people, manners, or proceedings.
10.
lacking ease and grace; awkward: a stiff style of writing.
11.
excessively regular or formal, as a design; not graceful in form or arrangement.
12.
laborious or difficult, as a task.
13.
severe or harsh, as a penalty or demand.
14.
excessive; unusually high or great: $50 is pretty stiff to pay for that.
15.
firm from tension; taut: to keep a stiff rein.
16.
relatively firm in consistency, as semisolid matter; thick: a stiff jelly; a stiff batter.
17.
dense or compact; not friable: stiff soil.
18.
Nautical. (of a vessel) having a high resistance to rolling; stable ( opposed to crank ).
19.
Scot. and North England. sturdy, stout, or strongly built.
20.
Australian Slang. out of luck; unfortunate.
noun
21.
Slang.
a.
a dead body; corpse.
b.
a formal or priggish person.
c.
a poor tipper; tightwad.
d.
a drunk.
22.
Slang.
a.
a fellow: lucky stiff; poor stiff.
b.
a tramp; hobo.
c.
a laborer.
23.
Slang.
a.
a forged check.
b.
a promissory note or bill of exchange.
c.
a letter or note, especially if secret or smuggled.
24.
Slang. a contestant, especially a racehorse, sure to lose.
00:10
Stiff is one of our favorite verbs.
So is lollygag. Does it mean:
to spend time idly; loaf.
to introduce subtleties into or argue subtly about.
LEARN MORE FUN, UNUSUAL VERBS WITH WORD DYNAMO...
adverb
25.
in or to a firm or rigid state: The wet shirt was frozen stiff.
26.
completely, intensely, or extremely: I'm bored stiff by these lectures. We're scared stiff.
verb (used with object)
27.
Slang. to fail or refuse to tip (a waiter, porter, etc.).
28.
Slang. to cheat; gyp; do out of: The company stiffed me out of a week's pay.
Origin:
before 1000; Middle English (adj. and adv.); Old English stīf; cognate with German steif; akin to stifle1, steeve1

Related forms
stiff·ish, adjective
stiff·ly, adverb
stiff·ness, noun
o·ver·stiff, adjective
o·ver·stiff·ly, adverb
o·ver·stiff·ness, noun
sem·i·stiff, adjective
sem·i·stiff·ly, adverb
sem·i·stiff·ness, noun
un·stiff, adjective
un·stiff·ly, adverb
un·stiff·ness, noun

Synonyms
1. unbending, unyielding. See firm1. 6. unrelenting, resolved, obstinate, pertinacious. 9. reserved, constrained, starched, prim. 10. graceless, inelegant.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
stiff (stɪf) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—adj
1.  not easily bent; rigid; inflexible
2.  not working or moving easily or smoothly: a stiff handle
3.  difficult to accept in its severity or harshness: a stiff punishment
4.  moving with pain or difficulty; not supple: a stiff neck
5.  difficult; arduous: a stiff climb
6.  unrelaxed or awkward; formal
7.  firmer than liquid in consistency; thick or viscous
8.  powerful; strong: a stiff breeze; a stiff drink
9.  excessively high: a stiff price
10.  nautical Compare tender (of a sailing vessel) relatively resistant to heeling or rolling
11.  lacking grace or attractiveness
12.  stubborn or stubbornly maintained: a stiff fight
13.  obsolete tightly stretched; taut
14.  slang chiefly (Austral) unlucky
15.  slang intoxicated
16.  stiff upper lip See lip
17.  informal stiff with amply provided with
 
—n
18.  slang a corpse
19.  slang anything thought to be a loser or a failure; flop
 
—adv
20.  completely or utterly: bored stiff; frozen stiff
 
—vb
21.  slang (intr) to fail: the film stiffed
22.  slang chiefly (US) (tr) to cheat or swindle
23.  slang (tr) to kill
 
[Old English stīf; related to Old Norse stīfla to dam up, Middle Low German stīf stiff, Latin stīpēs wooden post, stīpāre to press]
 
'stiffish
 
—adj
 
'stiffly
 
—adv
 
'stiffness
 
—n

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

stiff
O.E. stif "rigid, inflexible," from P.Gmc. *stifaz "inflexible" (cf. Du. stijf, O.H.G. stif, Ger. steif "stiff;" O.N. stifla "choke"), from PIE *stipos-, from root *steip- "press together, pack, cram" (cf. Skt. styayate "coagulates," stima "slow;" Gk. stia, stion "small stone," steibo "press together;"
L. stipare "pack down, press," stipes "post, tree trunk;" Lith. stipti "stiffen," stiprus "strong;" O.C.S. stena "wall"). Of battles and competitions, from mid-13c.; of liquor, from 1813. To keep a stiff upper lip is attested from 1815.

stiff
"fail to tip," 1939, originally among restaurant and hotel workers, probably from stiff (n.) in slang sense of "corpse" (corpses don't tip well, either). Extended by 1950 to "cheat."

stiff
"corpse," 1859, slang, from stiff (adj.) which had been associated with notion of rigor mortis since c.1200. Meaning "working man" first recorded 1930, from earlier gen. sense of "contemptible person" (1882). Slang meaning "something or someone bound to lose" is 1890 (originally
of racehorses), from notion of "corpse."
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

stiff definition


  1. mod.
    and stiffed. alcohol intoxicated; dead drunk. : She knows how to stop drinking before she gets stiff.
  2. n.
    a drunkard. : Some stiff staggered by—belching clouds of some beery smell. , The guy's a stiff, and you want to run him for mayor? Even in this town that's going too far.
  3. mod.
    dead. (Originally underworld.) : He's stiff. There's nothing that can be done.
  4. n.
    a corpse. (Underworld.) : They pulled another stiff out of the river last night. Looks like another mob killing.
  5. n.
    a fellow worker; a fellow tramp. (Originally hobos.) : This stiff wants some help finding a flop for the night.
  6. tv.
    to fail to tip someone who expects it. : Ya know, you can tell right away when a guy's gonna stiff you—ya just know. , I guess I get stiffed two, three times a day.
  7. tv.
    to cheat someone. : The clown selling hot dogs stiffed me for about forty cents.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
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American Heritage
Idioms & Phrases

stiff

In addition to the idioms beginning with stiff, also see bore to death (stiff); keep a stiff upper lip; scare out of one's wits (stiff).

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer.
Copyright © 1997. Published by Houghton Mifflin.
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Example sentences
The leaves come off the stalks frozen and stiff but become pliant in our bare hands.
Soon the first perch appeared, stiff and dead, its open mouth revealing a swollen protruding tongue.
He's acquired the lacquered sheen of a wedding-cake groom that makes his every move stiff and dramatically false.
Stiff upper lip is more the thing, and a good laugh if warranted.
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