stiff

[stif]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stiff ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective, stiff·er, stiff·est.

rigid or firm; difficult or impossible to bend or flex: a stiff collar.

not moving or working easily: The motor was a little stiff from the cold weather.

(of a person or animal) not supple; moving with difficulty, as from cold, age, exhaustion, or injury.

strong; forceful; powerful: stiff winds; The fighter threw a stiff right to his opponent's jaw.

strong or potent to the taste or system, as a beverage or medicine: He was cold and wanted a good stiff drink.

resolute; firm in purpose; unyielding; stubborn.

stubbornly continued: a stiff battle.

firm against any tendency to decrease, as stock-market prices.

rigidly formal; cold and unfriendly, as people, manners, or proceedings.

lacking ease and grace; awkward: a stiff style of writing.

excessively regular or formal, as a design; not graceful in form or arrangement.

laborious or difficult, as a task.

severe or harsh, as a penalty or demand.

excessive; unusually high or great: $50 is pretty stiff to pay for that.

firm from tension; taut: to keep a stiff rein.

relatively firm in consistency, as semisolid matter; thick: a stiff jelly; a stiff batter.

dense or compact; not friable: stiff soil.

Nautical. (of a vessel) having a high resistance to rolling; stable (opposed to crank²).

Scot. and North England. sturdy, stout, or strongly built.

Australian Slang. out of luck; unfortunate.

noun

Slang.

a dead body; corpse.
a formal or priggish person.
a poor tipper; tightwad.
a drunk.

Slang.

a fellow: lucky stiff; poor stiff.
a tramp; hobo.
a laborer.

Slang.

a forged check.
a promissory note or bill of exchange.
a letter or note, especially if secret or smuggled.

Slang. a contestant, especially a racehorse, sure to lose.

adverb

in or to a firm or rigid state: The wet shirt was frozen stiff.

completely, intensely, or extremely: I'm bored stiff by these lectures. We're scared stiff.

verb (used with object)

Slang. to fail or refuse to tip (a waiter, porter, etc.).

Slang. to cheat; gyp; do out of: The company stiffed me out of a week's pay.

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 for stiff

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR stiff ON THESAURUS.COM

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. 2019

Related Words for stiff

solid, stark, tight, tense, rigid, thick, wooden, creaky, arthritic, cold, strong, hard, tough, heavy, stringent, excessive, harsh, brisk, strict, rigorous

Examples from the Web for stiff

Contemporary Examples of stiff

Ney said McDonnell needs to “keep a stiff lip” and stay in close contact with family members.
Abramoff’s Advice for Virginia’s New Jailhouse Guv
Tim Mak, Jackie Kucinich
January 7, 2015
Her pallid young face, brow sweating with fear and pain, yet resolute and stiff with sorrow, makes you want to cry.
Relishing Rembrandt’s Blockbuster London Show
Nancy Durrant
October 16, 2014
FDR wanted to project easy grace rather than stiff formality—especially when communicating complicated matters.
FDR: King of All Media
John Avlon
September 2, 2014
He is in his late forties; intelligent, people say, but stiff and restrained, an eternal bachelor.
Adam Hochschild on Keeping Company With His Dying Father
Adam Hochschild
June 14, 2014
And most of the contemporization sounds like what it is—an ostentatious, slightly ill-fitting suit slipped onto a stiff.
Michael Jackson’s Posthumous Album, ‘Xscape,’ Is a Confused, Shameless Money Grab
Andrew Romano
May 13, 2014

Historical Examples of stiff

Opposite him sat a tall fellow very erect and stiff in his chair.
Way of the Lawless
Max Brand
The coverlet dropped from her breast; her hand was suspended with stiff fingers.
Way of the Lawless
Max Brand
A figure in white, with a stiff white cap, stood by the bed.
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
May Sinclair
She was thin, thinner than ever, and stiff as if she had withered.
Life and Death of Harriett Frean
May Sinclair
Her fingers were stiff, but so was her will: the way she stuck to her work was pathetic.
Weighed and Wanting
George MacDonald

British Dictionary definitions for stiff

stiff

adjective

not easily bent; rigid; inflexible

not working or moving easily or smoothlya stiff handle

difficult to accept in its severity or harshnessa stiff punishment

moving with pain or difficulty; not supplea stiff neck

difficult; arduousa stiff climb

unrelaxed or awkward; formal

firmer than liquid in consistency; thick or viscous

powerful; stronga stiff breeze; a stiff drink

excessively higha stiff price

nautical (of a sailing vessel) relatively resistant to heeling or rollingCompare tender 1 (def. 11)

lacking grace or attractiveness

stubborn or stubbornly maintaineda stiff fight

obsolete tightly stretched; taut

slang, mainly Australian unlucky

slang intoxicated

stiff upper lip See lip (def. 9)

stiff with informal amply provided with

noun

slang a corpse

slang anything thought to be a loser or a failure; flop

adverb

completely or utterlybored stiff; frozen stiff

verb

(intr) slang to failthe film stiffed

(tr) slang, mainly US to cheat or swindle

(tr) slang to kill

Derived Formsstiffish, adjectivestiffly, adverbstiffness, noun

Word Origin for stiff

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 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.

"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."

"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."

Idioms and Phrases with stiff

stiff

In addition to the idioms beginning with stiff

stiff as a board
stiff upper lip

also see:

bore to death (stiff)
keep a stiff upper lip
scare out of one's wits (stiff)