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stiff

[stif]
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adjective, stiff·er, stiff·est.
  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 crank2).
  19. Scot. and North England. sturdy, stout, or strongly built.
  20. Australian Slang. out of luck; unfortunate.
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noun
  1. Slang.
    1. a dead body; corpse.
    2. a formal or priggish person.
    3. a poor tipper; tightwad.
    4. a drunk.
  2. Slang.
    1. a fellow: lucky stiff; poor stiff.
    2. a tramp; hobo.
    3. a laborer.
  3. Slang.
    1. a forged check.
    2. a promissory note or bill of exchange.
    3. a letter or note, especially if secret or smuggled.
  4. Slang. a contestant, especially a racehorse, sure to lose.
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adverb
  1. in or to a firm or rigid state: The wet shirt was frozen stiff.
  2. completely, intensely, or extremely: I'm bored stiff by these lectures. We're scared stiff.
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verb (used with object)
  1. Slang. to fail or refuse to tip (a waiter, porter, etc.).
  2. Slang. to cheat; gyp; do out of: The company stiffed me out of a week's pay.
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Origin of stiff

before 1000; Middle English (adj. and adv.); Old English stīf; cognate with German steif; akin to stifle1, steeve1
Related formsstiff·ish, adjectivestiff·ly, adverbstiff·ness, nouno·ver·stiff, adjectiveo·ver·stiff·ly, adverbo·ver·stiff·ness, nounsem·i·stiff, adjectivesem·i·stiff·ly, adverbsem·i·stiff·ness, nounun·stiff, adjectiveun·stiff·ly, adverbun·stiff·ness, noun

Synonyms

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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 Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for stiffness

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • In everything that bows gracefully there must be an effort at stiffness.

    Alarms and Discursions

    G. K. Chesterton

  • She seemed to have smoothed away all the Boston stiffness as she smoothed her dress.

  • Markest thou not the stiffness wherewith he moves his left leg!'

    Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • Her hair was dazzlingly yellow, and arranged with all the stiffness of the coiffeur's art.

    The Avenger

    E. Phillips Oppenheim

  • Of straight lines there are many, but of stiffness there is none.

British Dictionary definitions for stiffness

stiff

adjective
  1. not easily bent; rigid; inflexible
  2. not working or moving easily or smoothlya stiff handle
  3. difficult to accept in its severity or harshnessa stiff punishment
  4. moving with pain or difficulty; not supplea stiff neck
  5. difficult; arduousa stiff climb
  6. unrelaxed or awkward; formal
  7. firmer than liquid in consistency; thick or viscous
  8. powerful; stronga stiff breeze; a stiff drink
  9. excessively higha stiff price
  10. nautical (of a sailing vessel) relatively resistant to heeling or rollingCompare tender 1 (def. 11)
  11. lacking grace or attractiveness
  12. stubborn or stubbornly maintaineda stiff fight
  13. obsolete tightly stretched; taut
  14. slang, mainly Australian unlucky
  15. slang intoxicated
  16. stiff upper lip See lip (def. 9)
  17. stiff with informal amply provided with
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noun
  1. slang a corpse
  2. slang anything thought to be a loser or a failure; flop
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adverb
  1. completely or utterlybored stiff; frozen stiff
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verb
  1. (intr) slang to failthe film stiffed
  2. (tr) slang, mainly US to cheat or swindle
  3. (tr) slang to kill
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Derived Formsstiffish, adjectivestiffly, adverbstiffness, noun

Word Origin

Old English stīf; related to Old Norse stīfla to dam up, Middle Low German stīf stiff, Latin stīpēs wooden post, stīpāre to press
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for stiffness

stiff

adj.

Old English stif "rigid, inflexible," from Proto-Germanic *stifaz "inflexible" (cf. Dutch stijf, Old High German stif, German steif "stiff;" Old Norse stifla "choke"), from PIE *stipos-, from root *steip- "press together, pack, cram" (cf. Sanskrit styayate "coagulates," stima "slow;" Greek stia, stion "small stone," steibo "press together;" Latin stipare "pack down, press," stipes "post, tree trunk;" Lithuanian stipti "stiffen," stiprus "strong;" Old Church Slavonic stena "wall"). Of battles and competitions, from mid-13c.; of liquor, from 1813. To keep a stiff upper lip is attested from 1815.

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stiff

n.

"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 genitive sense of "contemptible person" (1882). Slang meaning "something or someone bound to lose" is 1890 (originally of racehorses), from notion of "corpse."

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stiff

v.

"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."

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper

Idioms and Phrases with stiffness

stiff

In addition to the idioms beginning with stiff

also see:

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The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary Copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.