Contextualizebeta

stiff

adj
/stɪf/

Etymology

From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English stīf, from Proto-West Germanic *stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steypós. See also West Frisian stiif, Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif; also Latin stīpes, stīpō, from which English stevedore. The expected Modern English form would be /staɪf/; /stɪf/ is probably originally from compounds such as stiffly, where the vowel was shortened before a consonant cluster.

  1. inherited from *steypós✻
  2. inherited from *stīfaz✻
  3. inherited from *stīf✻
  4. inherited from stīf
  5. inherited from stiff

Definitions

  1. Rigid

    Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.

    • You have discovered the corpse of Captain Willem of the MSV Majesty. His stiff fingers are wrapped tightly around a small datapad.

  2. Inflexible

    Inflexible; rigid.

  3. Formal in behavior

    Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.

  4. ›+ 29 more definitions

    1. Harsh, severe.

      • He was eventually caught, and given a stiff fine.
      • “Yes. I believe she has passed quite a stiff exam.”
      • To fit them for heavy loads on gradients as stiff as 1 in 45 in tropical conditions, these Class 90 diesels embody several unusual features, [...].

    2. Painful or more rigid than usual as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.

      • My legs are stiff after climbing that hill yesterday.

    3. Potent.

      • a stiff drink; a stiff dose; a stiff breeze
      • [Badminton] was popular in India because of the climate, where it was played outdoors, but in England the stiff breezes made it impossible to play without heavily loaded shuttlecocks.

    4. Expensive, pricey.

      • He had the practised face of a dealer also. But he was a Jew and chaffering was in his blood, and he said, "A bit stiff, isn't it? I mean without a guarantee that it's by the original maker?"

    5. Dead, deceased.

    6. Erect.

    7. Having a dense consistency

      Having a dense consistency; thick; (by extension) Difficult to stir.

      • Adding too much peanut butter to your Peanut Sauce recipe may cause your sauce to turn out too stiff.

    8. Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.

      • beat the egg whites until they are stiff

    9. Of an equation, for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable,…

      Of an equation, for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.

    10. Keeping upright.

    11. Of a shot, landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball…

      Of a shot, landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball with the next shot.

      • I go all out, go for the long ball, the stiff shots to the pin, aim for the back of the cup.

    12. Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus…

      Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.

    13. An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education.

      • working stiff
      • The clerk shrugged: “That's the boss's little girl.” “Why, the lucky stiff!” said Keating. “He's been holding out on me.” “You misunderstood me,” the clerk said coldly. “It's his daughter. It's Dominique Francon.”

    14. A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.

      • She convinced the stiff to go to her hotel room, where her henchman was waiting to rob him.

    15. A cadaver

      A cadaver; a dead person.

      • This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies!

    16. A flop

      A flop; a commercial failure.

      • If the movie was a stiff it wasn't any of their specific faults. They were all in it together and they were jobbed in and jobbed out for two weeks and gone and they got a pile of money for their efforts.
      • They never did sell any records. I don't mean they didn't sell 100,000. I mean they didn't sell 5000. Total. National. Coast-to-coast. The record was a stiff.

    17. A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.

    18. A customer who does not leave a tip.

    19. Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.

    20. Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.

    21. A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

    22. To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by…

      To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.

      • He stiffed me on the tip.
      • Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.
      • We asked one girl to explain how she felt when she was "stiffed." She said, You think of all the work you've done and how you've tried to please [them…].

    23. To cheat someone.

      • You see, poor Nonie really was stiffed by Adolph in his will. He really stiffed her, Rose, and I really wanted to right that wrong.
      • The Donald moved on to how he had spent £100m on expensive plywood while renovating the golf club. The Scottish tradesmen must have seen him coming. It looks like Trump has been stiffed. So much for the art of the deal.

    24. To tip ungenerously.

      • Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.

    25. To kill.

      • But you know it could be a hassle / Trying to explain myself to a police officer / About how it was your old lady got herself stiffed

    26. To be unsuccessful.

      • "Come To Me" moved but a few to buy a copy; "My Queen" stiffed in the stall.

    27. Of the wind, with great force

      Of the wind, with great force; strongly.

      • At Feversham was a very High Tide in the Afternoon, tho' the Wind was Southerly, and blew very stiff, which the Seamen there wondered at.
      • It soon blew stiff, & we scudded before it under double-reefed topsails, & mainsail hauled up.
      • At about 11.30 am it rained tremendously and blew very stiff.

    28. Very thoroughly.

      • Now I want you to take Vallett in hand and drill him stiff with everything that has to do with Tilehurst and Tapsfield.

    29. A surname.

The neighborhood

Derived

bindle stiff, bored stiff, diabetic stiff hand syndrome, frozen stiff, nonstiff, overstiff, scared stiff, stiff-arm, stiff as a board, stiff as a poker, stiff-backed, stiff cheddar, stiffen, stiff-hearted, stiffish, stiff-leaf goldenrod, stiffleg, stifflike, stiff-lipped, stiff man syndrome, stiff neck, stiffnecked, stiff-necked, stiffness, stiff peak, stiff peaks, stiff-person syndrome, stiff person syndrome, stiff porridge, stiffship, stiff shit, stiff sickness, stiff skin syndrome, Stiff Street, stifftail, stiff-tailed duck, stiff 'un, stiff upper lip, stiffware, stiffy · +6 more

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at stiff. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

01stiff02inflexible03changed04undergone05undergo06endure07persist08resolutely09unyielding10stubborn

A definitional loop anchored at stiff. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

10 hops · closes at stiff

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA