stiff
Americanadjective
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rigid or firm; difficult or impossible to bend or flex.
a stiff collar.
- Synonyms:
- unyielding, unbending
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not moving or working easily.
The motor was a little stiff from the cold weather.
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(of a person or animal) not supple; moving with difficulty, as from cold, age, exhaustion, or injury.
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strong; forceful; powerful: The fighter threw a stiff right to his opponent's jaw.
stiff winds;
The fighter threw a stiff right to his opponent's jaw.
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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.
- Synonyms:
- unrelenting, pertinacious, obstinate, resolved
-
stubbornly continued.
a stiff battle.
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firm against any tendency to decrease, as stock-market prices.
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rigidly formal; cold and unfriendly, as people, manners, or proceedings.
- Synonyms:
- prim, constrained, reserved
-
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.
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Nautical. (of a vessel) having a high resistance to rolling; stable (opposed to crank).
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Scot. and North England. sturdy, stout, or strongly built.
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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: We're scared stiff.
I'm bored stiff by these lectures.
We're scared stiff.
adjective
-
not easily bent; rigid; inflexible
-
not working or moving easily or smoothly
a stiff handle
-
difficult to accept in its severity or harshness
a stiff punishment
-
moving with pain or difficulty; not supple
a stiff neck
-
difficult; arduous
a stiff climb
-
unrelaxed or awkward; formal
-
firmer than liquid in consistency; thick or viscous
-
powerful; strong
a stiff breeze
a stiff drink
-
excessively high
a stiff price
-
nautical (of a sailing vessel) relatively resistant to heeling or rolling Compare tender 1
-
lacking grace or attractiveness
-
stubborn or stubbornly maintained
a stiff fight
-
obsolete tightly stretched; taut
-
slang unlucky
-
slang intoxicated
-
See lip
-
informal amply provided with
noun
-
slang a corpse
-
slang anything thought to be a loser or a failure; flop
adverb
verb
-
slang (intr) to fail
the film stiffed
-
slang (tr) to cheat or swindle
-
slang (tr) to kill
Synonym Usage
See firm 1.
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
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stiffnessnoun
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overstiffadjective
-
semistiffadjective
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stiffishadjective
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unstiffadjective
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overstifflyadverb
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semistifflyadverb
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stifflyadverb
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unstifflyadverb
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
stiffsimple
-
stiffssimple
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have stiffedperfect
-
has stiffedperfect
-
am stiffingprogressive
-
are stiffingprogressive
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is stiffingprogressive
-
have been stiffingperfect progressive
-
has been stiffingperfect progressive
Past
-
stiffedsimple
-
had stiffedperfect
-
was stiffingprogressive
-
were stiffingprogressive
-
had been stiffingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of stiff
First recorded before 1000; Middle English stif, stijf, Old English stīf; cognate with German steif, Old Norse stífr; akin to Latin stīpāre “to crowd, press” ( see steeve 1 ( def. ), stifle 1 )
Explanation
Stiff things don’t bend or move easily. Dead bodies and tree branches are often stiff, and your back might feel stiff if you sit for too long. But to stiff the wait staff is to skip the tip. Bad idea. If a doorknob is stiff, it won't turn smoothly, and if the smile on your face is stiff, it’s frozen and unnatural looking. When a person is stiff, they are artificial and unrelaxed — unless they're "scared stiff" or "bored stiff." A regular guy is a working stiff. Another colloquial meaning of stiff is "to underpay, or to cheat.” Also, a stiff drink has a lot of alcohol. A dead body is sometimes called a stiff, but it’s rude.
Vocabulary lists containing stiff
Engineering - Introductory
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Civil Engineering
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Engineering - Middle School
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Domino's Pizza closed its last outlets in Italy - the birthplace of pizza - in 2022 after facing stiff competition from local restaurants since it opened there seven years earlier.
From BBC ● Jul. 14, 2026
Fibrosis is the buildup of stiff, scar like tissue that can interfere with normal movement and function.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 12, 2026
VW is also being elbowed out of China, with years of declining sales amid stiff local competition last year leaving the firm's vehicle deliveries in the country at their lowest level since 2011.
From Barron's ● Jul. 9, 2026
Points deducted for some stiff dramatic reenactments; I would prefer a picture of an empty desk than one of a miscast George Washington sitting at it.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 30, 2026
The figures in the images appeared stiff and lifeless.
From "The Red Car to Hollywood" by Jennie Liu
There are more houses on the market than people looking to buy, she explained, which means sellers face stiffer competition, forcing them to lower prices.
From BBC ● Jul. 18, 2026
The disruptions come at a sensitive time for Europe, where EU storage levels remain below 29%, raising the prospect of stiffer competition for LNG cargoes with Asian buyers.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Mar. 23, 2026
The DWI asked for the case to be sent to Crown court for sentencing as it was "high-profile or exceptionally sensitive", and a Crown court could hand down stiffer penalties.
From BBC ● Mar. 4, 2026
Metal implants can also create problems because they are much stiffer than natural bone and may loosen over time, reducing long term stability.
From Science Daily ● Mar. 3, 2026
It was newer and stiffer than the first.
From "The Cricket in Times Square" by George Selden
It turned out that some of the stiffest competition faced by the New Britain plant came from within Stanley itself.
From The Wall Street Journal ● May 6, 2026
His penalty of life imprisonment without parole was the stiffest in New Zealand history.
From Barron's ● Feb. 8, 2026
When it comes to plant expertise, Club Gay Gardens co-founder Maggie Smart-McCabe is among the stiffest competition, though she’s far too humble to say so herself.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2025
Prosecutors said they will ask for the stiffest sentence possible since the plea agreement was breached and require Murdaugh serve his federal sentence at the end of any state sentences.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 26, 2024
Her body curled too; as the weeks turned to months, she shrank into herself like the stiffest of fetuses, shrivelling, her skin sallow and waxy.
From "Typical American" by Gish Jen
Not that Mr. Kimbrough ever sought to play stiffs.
From New York Times ● Feb. 5, 2023
He repeatedly stiffs contractors and vendors and his namesake company was convicted of tax fraud just last month.
From Salon ● Dec. 24, 2022
Let’s say they’re stiffs and they’re stupid people, and they say, ‘Well, we really have no choice.’
From Washington Post ● Dec. 6, 2022
That honor will always go to John Wooden, with his 10 national championships in an era when the tournament contained no stiffs, but only conference champions.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 12, 2022
"Just between ourselves, Blore, and taking into account that we'll probably both be a couple of stiffs before another day is out, you did indulge in that spot of perjury, I suppose?"
From "And Then There Were None" by Agatha Christie
These are the “private investors” who would get stiffed if Ivanpah were to shut down due to the project’s minimal asset salvage value and the sizable Energy Department loan standing first in the recovery line.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Dec. 25, 2025
Delvey says the monitor, imposed after she faked wire transfers, defrauded New York’s elite, and stiffed hotels and restaurants to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars, shouldn’t hinder her performance too much.
From Salon ● Sep. 4, 2024
DuBon had been stiffed on a painting job a few weeks earlier — an employer simply refused to pay — and started going to Casa Latina instead of Home Depot.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 8, 2024
But when he asked the court for reimbursement, he got stiffed.
From Slate ● Aug. 10, 2023
Just my luck, that day somebody had stiffed him $250 for making a dent in a garage door while he was on a job.
From "Merci Suárez Changes Gears" by Meg Medina
“Under Musk’s control, Twitter has become a scofflaw, stiffing employees, landlords, vendors, and others,” says the lawsuit, filed in federal court in the Northern District of California.
From Seattle Times ● Mar. 4, 2024
This Russian-German con artist, born Anna Sorokin, constructed such a convincing illusion out of snobbery and good taste that she succeeded in stiffing luxury hotels and bilking financial institutions for hundreds of thousands of dollars.
From Salon ● Feb. 12, 2022
One of them, you might say, was Hollywood’s most notorious tightwad, staving off the terror of poverty by stiffing servants and handing houseguests itemized bills.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 28, 2020
Cohen was his consigliere, the tough street lawyer whose job, he says, was stiffing Trump’s business partners and burying his scandals.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 11, 2020
“If you’re not getting commissions, Becker’s stiffing you.”
From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
