stuff
- the material of which anything is made: a hard, crystalline stuff.
- material to be worked upon or to be used in making something: wood, steel, and other stuff for building.
- material of some unspecified kind: a cushion filled with some soft stuff.
- Chiefly British. woven material or fabric, especially wool.
- property, as personal belongings or equipment; things.
- something to be swallowed, as food, drink, or medicine.
- inward character, qualities, or capabilities: to have good stuff in one.
- Informal. action or talk of a particular kind: kid stuff; Cut out the rough stuff.
- worthless things or matter: to clean the stuff out of a closet.
- worthless or foolish ideas, talk, or writing: a lot of stuff and nonsense.
- Sports.
- Baseball.the assortment of pitches that a pitcher uses in a game together with the ability to deliver them in the proper manner at the right speed to the desired spot: He saved his best stuff for the tougher hitters in the lineup.
- spin or speed imparted to a ball, as by a baseball pitcher, a bowler, or a tennis player: a pitch with plenty of stuff.
- Informal. journalistic, literary, artistic, dramatic, musical, or other compositions or performances: Bach composed some splendid stuff.
- Informal. one's trade, skill, field, facts, etc.: She knows her stuff.
- Slang. any kind of drug, especially an illicit one.
- Also called stock. Papermaking. refined and beaten wet pulp ready for spreading on the wire.
- to fill (a receptacle), especially by packing the contents closely together; cram full.
- to fill (an aperture, cavity, etc.) by forcing something into it.
- to fill or line with some kind of material as a padding or packing.
- to fill or cram (oneself, one's stomach, etc.) with food.
- to fill (meat, vegetables, etc.) with seasoned bread crumbs or other savory matter.
- to fill the preserved skin of (a dead animal) with material, retaining its natural form and appearance for display.
- to put fraudulent votes into (a ballot box).
- to thrust or cram (something) into a receptacle, cavity, or the like.
- to pack tightly in a confined place; crowd together.
- to crowd (a vehicle, room, etc.) with persons.
- to clutter or fill (the mind) with facts, details, etc.
- (in leather manufacturing) to treat (a skin, hide, etc.) with a composition of tallow and other ingredients.
- to stop up or plug; block or choke (usually followed by up).
- to cram oneself with food; eat gluttonously; gorge.
Origin of stuff
Synonym study
Related Words for stuff
junk, substance, gear, things, equipment, goods, matter, meat, cloth, material, wedge, shove, stow, pack, pad, cram, squeeze, fill, individual, paraphernaliaExamples from the Web for stuff
Contemporary Examples of stuff
The best comparison here for an American audience is, well, Internet stuff.
I think all the traveling and all the nationalities put that stuff in my head.
Coffee Talk with Fred Armisen: On ‘Portlandia,’ Meeting Obama, and Taylor Swift’s GreatnessMarlow Stern
January 7, 2015
There were a lot of little pieces, pieces of lead and stuff.
“Sometimes the Christians are saying, ‘We need to hear explicitly Christian stuff,’” says Mineo.
And his worst work is better than the stuff everyone else is doing.
Coffee Talk with Ethan Hawke: On ‘Boyhood,’ Jennifer Lawrence, and Bill Clinton’s Urinal ExchangeMarlow Stern
December 27, 2014
Historical Examples of stuff
I don't think much of his stuff, but they say he makes heaps of money.
Ballads of a BohemianRobert W. Service
You can peel the stuff out of your pockets with one hand, I figure.
Way of the LawlessMax Brand
But he said to himself "there was stuff in her: what a woman might be made of her!"
Weighed and WantingGeorge MacDonald
Add the seasonings, mix thoroughly, and stuff into the bird.
Woman's Institute Library of Cookery, Vol. 3Woman's Institute of Domestic Arts and Sciences
These landscape fellows buy their stuff direct, and the middleman's out.
KMary Roberts Rinehart
stuff
- to pack or fill completely; cram
- (intr) to eat large quantities
- to force, shove, or squeezeto stuff money into a pocket
- to fill (food such as poultry or tomatoes) with a stuffing
- to fill (an animal's skin) with material so as to restore the shape of the live animal
- slang to have sexual intercourse with (a woman)
- tanning to treat (an animal skin or hide) with grease
- US and Canadian to fill (a ballot box) with a large number of fraudulent votes
- (in marine transport) to pack (a container)See also stuffing and stripping
- slang to ruin, frustrate, or defeat
- the raw material or fabric of something
- woollen cloth or fabric
- any general or unspecified substance or accumulation of objects
- stupid or worthless actions, speech, ideas, etc
- subject matter, skill, etche knows his stuff
- a slang word for money
- slang a drug, esp cannabis
- British slang a girl or woman considered sexually (esp in the phrase bit of stuff)
- do one's stuff informal to do what is expected of one
- that's the stuff that is what is needed
Word Origin for stuff
usage
Word Origin and History for stuff
early 14c., "quilted material worn under chain mail," from Old French estoffe "quilted material, furniture, provisions" (Modern French étoffe), from estoffer "to equip or stock," which according to French sources is from Old High German stopfon "to plug, stuff," or from a related Frankish word (see stop), but OED has "strong objections" to this. Sense extended to material for working with in various trades (c.1400), then (1570s) "matter of an unspecified kind." Meaning "narcotic, dope, drug" is attested from 1929. To know (one's) stuff "have a grasp on a subject" is recorded from 1927.
mid-15c., "to cram full," from stuff (n.); earlier "to furnish a fort or army with men and stores" (c.1300). The ballot-box sense is attested from 1854, American English; in expressions of contempt and suggestive of bodily orifices, it dates from 1952. Stuffing "seasoned mixture used to stuff fowls before cooking" is from 1530s. Stuffed in reference to garments, "padded with stuffing" is from mid-15c.; hence stuffed shirt "pompous, ineffectual person" (1913).
Idioms and Phrases with stuff
stuff
In addition to the idioms beginning with stuff
- stuff and nonsense
- stuffed shirt
- stuff it
- stuff one's face
- stuff the ballot box
also see:
- get stuffed
- hot number (stuff)
- kid stuff
- know one's stuff
- strut one's stuff