stuffy
Americanadjective
-
stuffier,
comparative
-
stuffiest
superlative
-
close; poorly ventilated.
a stuffy room.
-
oppressive from lack of freshness.
stuffy air; a stuffy odor.
-
lacking in interest, as writing or discourse.
- Synonyms:
- stodgy
-
affected with a sensation of obstruction in the respiratory passages.
a stuffy nose.
-
dull or tedious; boring.
- Synonyms:
- stodgy
-
self-important; pompous.
- Synonyms:
- smug
-
rigid or strait-laced in attitudes, especially in matters of personal behavior.
- Synonyms:
- priggish
-
old-fashioned; conservative.
- Synonyms:
- stodgy
-
ill-tempered; sulky.
adjective
-
lacking fresh air
-
excessively dull, staid, or conventional
-
(of the nasal passages) blocked with mucus
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Adjectives
Etymology
Origin of stuffy
Explanation
A room that's stuffy isn't well-ventilated or full of fresh air. If your classroom is stuffy, you may find it hard to concentrate. Better ask your teacher to open a window. If your car is stuffy, it's hot and there isn't enough fresh air circulating. If your nose is stuffy, it's congested (also without enough air moving through it). When a person is stuffy, he or she is a little prim and proper, without a lot of imagination or a willingness to try new things. The very earliest meaning of this adjective, dating from about 1550, was "full of substance."
Vocabulary lists containing stuffy
The Catcher in the Rye
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Genesis Begins Again
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Finding Langston
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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:
Among legacy networks, NBC was already the best match for Netflix—less stuffy than CBS News, less adventurous and jazzy than ABC News, at least by the images the three news divisions cultivated in their heyday.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 30, 2026
There's nothing worse than putting a child to sleep in a stuffy bedroom when you're already sweating.
From BBC ● Jun. 19, 2026
I mean, I might end up getting roped into buying something — not a Labubu because that’s over but some sort of kawaii animal stuffy.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 8, 2026
Similar to you, I prefer fun activities over stuffy, formal parties.
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 20, 2026
Petrol, raw fish, and stale sweat dominated a battle of odors for the stuffy space.
From "Flying Through Water" by Mamle Wolo
How delightfully ironic that Mary and her avant-garde charm, which was once polarizing and niche to the film’s stuffier early critics, were finally finding a wider audience.
From Salon ● Jun. 9, 2025
Many of them prefer data science or finance, while accounting struggles with a stuffier, more old-fashioned image.
From Seattle Times ● Jun. 1, 2023
In which case I’d resort to a calmer, stuffier word, like “major.”
From New York Times ● Apr. 7, 2022
It might be easy to consider the Cruising Pavilion a bit of architectural spit-balling — a subject intended to poke fun at the stuffier projects in the sanctioned exhibits at the Biennale across the canal.
From Los Angeles Times ● May 27, 2018
I was shown into another room, smaller and stuffier still, windowless and airless.
From "The Girl on the Train" by Paula Hawkins
Naturally, this is the film’s opening scene, intended to communicate that managing Tourette’s is a lifelong endeavor, but that even the stuffiest, most proper royal figurehead can meet the condition with patience and understanding.
From Salon ● Apr. 26, 2026
Of all the neighborhoods in New York City, the Upper East Side has long had a reputation for being the most boring, old-school and stuffiest part of town.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2025
Held at Riviera, one of the best, and stuffiest, courses in the country.
From Golf Digest ● Feb. 27, 2020
Only the stuffiest prig would say "Whom are you going to believe, me or your own eyes?"
From The Guardian ● Aug. 15, 2014
They’d taken a job at the Louvre because it was the stuffiest place in Paris.
From "The Mona Lisa Vanishes" by Nicholas Day
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.
