stiff
see also: Stiff
Etymology
Stiff
Etymology
This text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
see also: Stiff
Etymology
From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English stīf, from Proto-West Germanic *stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steypós.
See also Western Frisian stiif, Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif; also Latin stīpes, stīpō, from which English stevedore.
The expected Modern English form would be /staɪf/; /stɪf/ is probably originally from compounds such as stiffly, where the vowel was shortened before a consonant cluster.
Pronunciation- IPA: /stɪf/
stiff (comparative stiffer, superlative stiffest)
- (of an, object) Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC ↗:
- “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron; […]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.
- (figurative, of policies and rules and their application and enforcement) Inflexible; rigid.
- (of a, person) Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
- (colloquial) Harsh, severe.
- He was eventually caught, and given a stiff fine.
- (of muscles or parts of the body) Painful or more rigid than usual as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.
- My legs are stiff after climbing that hill yesterday.
- Potent.
- a stiff drink; a stiff dose; a stiff breeze
- (informal) Dead, deceased.
- (slang, of the penis) Erect.
- Having a dense consistency; thick; (by extension) Difficult to stir.
- Adding too much peanut butter to your Peanut Sauce recipe may cause your sauce to turn out too stiff.
- (culinary, of whipping cream or egg whites) Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.
- beat the egg whites until they are stiff
- (math) Of an equation, for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
- (nautical) Keeping upright.
- (golf) Of a shot, landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball with the next shot.
- 1968, William Price Fox, Southern Fried Plus Six: Short Works of Fiction, page 219:
- I go all out, go for the long ball, the stiff shots to the pin, aim for the back of the cup.
- (professional wrestling, of a, strike) Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.
- French: rigide, raide
- German: steif, starr
- Italian: rigido
- Portuguese: rígido, duro, inflexível, rijo, hirto, firme
- Russian: жёсткий
- Spanish: rígido, duro, tieso, inflexible
- French: rigide
- Italian: rigido, inflessibile
- Portuguese: rígido, inflexível
- Russian: жёсткий
- Spanish: rígido, inflexible
- French: raide
- German: steif
- Italian: rigido
- Portuguese: sério, firme
- Russian: холо́дный
- Spanish: rígido, serio, tieso
- German: steif
- Italian: rigido
- Portuguese: dolorido, rijo
- Russian: окостене́вший
- Spanish: dolorido, adolorido
- Russian: кре́пкий
- French: raide
stiff
- (slang, chiefly, North America) An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education.
- (slang) A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.
- She convinced the stiff to go to her hotel room, where her henchman was waiting to rob him.
- (slang) A cadaver; a dead person.
- Synonyms: Thesaurus:corpse, Thesaurus:body
- (slang) A flop; a commercial failure.
- 1994, Andy Dougan, The actors' director: Richard Attenborough behind the camera, page 63:
- If the movie was a stiff it wasn't any of their specific faults. They were all in it together and they were jobbed in and jobbed out for two weeks and gone and they got a pile of money for their efforts.
- 2016, Ralph J. Gleason, Toby Gleason, Music in the Air: The Selected Writings of Ralph J. Gleason:
- They never did sell any records. I don't mean they didn't sell 100,000. I mean they didn't sell 5000. Total. National. Coast-to-coast. The record was a stiff.
- (US, slang) A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
- (US, slang, by extension) A customer who does not leave a tip.
- (blackjack) Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
- (finance, slang) Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
- (prison slang) A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.
- Russian: лох
- German: Zechpreller
stiff (stiffs, present participle stiffing; simple past and past participle stiffed)
- To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.
- Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.
- 1946, William Foote Whyte, Industry and Society, page 129:
- We asked one girl to explain how she felt when she was "stiffed." She said, You think of all the work you've done and how you've tried to please [them…].
- To cheat someone
- 1992, Stephen Birmingham, Shades of Fortune, page 451:
- You see, poor Nonie really was stiffed by Adolph in his will. He really stiffed her, Rose, and I really wanted to right that wrong.
- To tip ungenerously.
- 2007, Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before, page 154:
- Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.
- (slang) To kill.
- (informal) To be unsuccessful.
- German: prellen
- German: abspeisen
stiff
Stiff
Etymology
English surname, from the adjective stiff.
Proper nounThis text is extracted from the Wiktionary and it is available under the CC BY-SA 3.0 license | Terms and conditions | Privacy policy 0.003
