/stʌf/, /stɐf/, /stʊf/
OriginFrom Middle English stuf, stuffe, borrowed from Medieval Latin stuffa and its etymon Old French estofe, estoffe, estuf, estuffe, stoffe, from estoffer, estofer (“to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff”), borrowed from Old High German stoffōn, from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn (“to clog up, block, fill”). More at stop.
- informal, uncountable, usuallyMiscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.
“What is all that stuff on your bedroom floor? He didn't want his pockets to bulge so he was walking around with all his stuff in his hands.”
“The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swea”
- informal, obsolete, uncountable, usuallyFurniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
“and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.”
“He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.”
- informal, uncountable, usuallyUnspecified things or matters.
“I had to do some stuff.”
- uncountable, usuallyThe tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.
“The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.”
“Pound an onion, warm a spoonful of ghee and throw in the onion, brown it slightly, add your curry stuff, brown this till it smells pleasantly, […]”
- archaic, uncountable, usuallyA material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
“Without waiting for a reply, she unbound the veil from her head, and took off the loose black novice's robe, which she had put over a gray stuff dress similar to that worn by Lucy.”
“"And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.”
“She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.”
- archaic, uncountable, usuallyBoards used for building.
- uncountable, usuallyAbstract/figurative substance or character.
“When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff”
“We are such stuff / As dreams are made on”
- uncountable, usuallyPaper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.
- informal, uncountable, usuallyUsed as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.
“Can I have some of that stuff on my ice-cream sundae?”
“It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless.[…]You stand by, Janet, and wake me up if they ”
“The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsy”
- slang, uncountable, usuallyNarcotic drugs, especially heroin.
“For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.”
“For example, one addict would crack shorts (break and enter cars) and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.”
- obsolete, uncountable, usuallyA medicine or mixture; a potion.
“I[…]did compound for her / A certaine ſtuffe, which being tane, would ceaſe / The preſent powre of life[…].”
- euphemistic, sometimes, uncountable, usuallyRefuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language.
“Don't give me any of that 'what-about' stuff!”
“Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.”
“But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine, / With yellow kid gloves and a ruff— / Said he felt it exactly like going to dine, / Which the Bellman declared was all "stuff."”
- uncountable, usuallyA melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
“The master, at my earnest solicitation, examined his vessel, and though he prefers the coal tar, yet he told me, there were shells sticking on, and that a very thin coat of stuff, if any, remained.”
“On the last transverse planking, after: caulking and paying, he has laid on a coat of stuff, so hard when cold aš to resist a firm touch, and applied plain paper, then took heated band irons (such as ”
“While the ships were placed in ordinary “a thick coat of stuff” was applied to the hulls, and their awnings might be spread or sheds erected to provide some protection from sun and weather.”
- dated, slang, uncountable, usuallyMoney.
- transitiveTo fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
“I'm going to stuff this pillow with feathers.”
“Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.”
- transitiveTo fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
“He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.”
“Put them [roses] into a[…] glass, with narrow mouths, stuffing them close together […] and [they] retain[…] smell […][and] colour.”
“The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite”
- transitiveTo fill with seasoning.
“She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret recipe.”
- transitiveTo load goods into (a container) for transport.
- transitiveTo sate.
“I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.”
- pronominalTo eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.
“She sits on the sofa all day, watching TV and stuffing herself with cream buns.”
- Australia, British, New-Zealand, transitiveTo break; to destroy.
“He skidded off the road and totally stuffed his brand new car.”
- informalTo heavily defeat or get the better of.
“Mudchester Rovers were stuffed 7–0 in the semi-final.”
“They totally stuffed us in that business deal.”
- transitiveTo cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.
“I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.”
- To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
“KANG: When I take this ship, I'll have Kirk's head stuffed and hung on his cabin wall. // MARA: They will kill us before we can act. // KANG: No, they wish to question us, learn our strength, our plan”
- transitiveTo obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
“I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.”
- transitiveTo form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
“An Eastern king put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence, and ordered his hide to be stuffed into a cushion, and placed upon the tribunal.”
- dated, transitiveTo crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
- transitiveTo compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.
Formsstuffs(plural) · stuffs(present, singular, third-person) · stuffing(participle, present) · stuffed(participle, past) · stuffed(past)