stiff
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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
Synonyms for stiff
Related Words for stiffer
solid, stark, tight, tense, rigid, thick, wooden, creaky, arthritic, cold, strong, hard, tough, heavy, stringent, excessive, harsh, brisk, strict, rigorousExamples from the Web for stiffer
Contemporary Examples of stiffer
Stiffer corporate income tax: This one I imagine Democrats would like to do.
The longer you cook a cranberry sauce, the more pectin is released and liquid is evaporated, and the stiffer the result will be.
Historical Examples of stiffer
He's last in ten jumps, that's what he is: stiffer'n a board!
Old Man CurryCharles E. (Charles Emmett) Van Loan
Should he find them all colder, stiffer, haughtier than ever?
Luttrell Of ArranCharles James Lever
And he let them alone, like figures of stone,For he could not make them stiffer.
The Book of Humorous VerseVarious
The stiffer the breeze and the more sail there is, the more she careens.
MenhardocGeorge Manville Fenn
Now I am sure you couldn't have made it any stiffer in your own rooms.
The Woman in BlackEdmund Clerihew Bentley
stiff
- 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
- slang a corpse
- slang anything thought to be a loser or a failure; flop
- completely or utterlybored stiff; frozen stiff
- (intr) slang to failthe film stiffed
- (tr) slang, mainly US to cheat or swindle
- (tr) slang to kill
Word Origin for stiff
Word Origin and History for stiffer
stiff
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.
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 genitive sense of "contemptible person" (1882). Slang meaning "something or someone bound to lose" is 1890 (originally of racehorses), from notion of "corpse."
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."
Idioms and Phrases with stiffer
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)