stuffing

American  

[stuhf-ing] / ˈstʌf ɪŋ /

noun

1. the act of a person or thing that stuffs.

2. a material or substance used to stuff something.

3. Cooking. seasoned breadcrumbs or other filling used to stuff a chicken, turkey, etc., before cooking.

4. Informal. internal parts; insides.

   to beat the stuffing out of an opponent.

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stuffing British  

/ ˈstʌfɪŋ /

noun

1. the material with which something is stuffed

2. a mixture of chopped and seasoned ingredients with which poultry, meat, etc, is stuffed before cooking

3. to upset or dishearten someone completely

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• understuffing
  noun

Etymology

Origin of stuffing

First recorded in 1520–30; stuff + -ing ¹

Explanation

Stuffing is the soft material inside pillows, mattresses, or sofa cushions. Without stuffing, your comfy chair wouldn't be very comfy. Stuffing is meant either to make things more comfortable, or more delicious. The edible kind of stuffing is a savory filling that's stuffed inside something being cooked, like a turkey or a potato. Stuffing stems from the verb stuff, which meant "fill the belly with food and drink" in the early 1400s, and came to mean "fill the interior of a pastry or the cavity of a fowl or beast" later in the century.

Example Sentences

The hackers used a common tactic known as credential stuffing to access the data, which exploits weak and reused passwords.

From Los Angeles Times • May 30, 2026

But for others, it has turned into an opportunity to flex their money-saving muscles — even to the point of stuffing socks and underwear in those holiday baskets.

From MarketWatch • Apr. 2, 2026

When I was a kid, packing for sleepaway camp, I’d load up a Kindle with books to avoid stuffing my duffels even more.

From Slate • Mar. 8, 2026

That’s when Ms. Nichter, who is Jewish, observed passengers around her ripping apart their Israeli passports, stuffing the larger scraps into sickness bags while chewing and swallowing the smaller pieces.

From The Wall Street Journal • Mar. 3, 2026

“Probably ’cause there’s so much junk back there,” Oliver says before stuffing a handful of chips into his mouth.

From "A Soft Place to Land" by Janae Marks

Related Words

• dressing
• filling