Dictionary Definition
stiff adj
1 lacking ease in bending; not limber; "a stiff
neck"; "stiff joints"; "stiff hairs"
2 not moving or operating freely; "a stiff
hinge"
3 powerful; "a stiff current"; "a stiff breeze";
"a stiff drink"
4 rigidly formal; "a starchy manner"; "the letter
was stiff and formal"; "his prose has a buckram quality" [syn:
starchy, buckram]
5 hard to overcome or surmount; "a stiff hike";
"a stiff exam"; "an uphill battle against a popular incumbant"
[syn: uphill]
6 of a collar; standing up rather than folded
down; "an uncomfortable standup collar"; "a stiff collar" [syn:
stand-up]
7 incapable of or resistant to bending; "a rigid
strip of metal"; "a table made of rigid plastic"; "a palace
guardsman stiff as a poker" [syn: rigid]
8 very drunk [syn: besotted, blind drunk,
blotto, crocked, cockeyed, fuddled, loaded, pie-eyed, pissed, pixilated, plastered, potty, slopped, sloshed, smashed, soaked, soused, sozzled, squiffy, tiddly, tiddley, tight, tipsy, wet]
Noun
1 an ordinary man; "a lucky stiff"; "a working
stiff"
1 extremely; "bored stiff"; "frightened
stiff"
2 in a stiff manner; "his hands lay stiffly"
[syn: stiffly]
User Contributed Dictionary
English
Etymology
stīf, from , from ( compare stipare).Pronunciation
- /stɪf/
-
- Rhymes: -ɪf
Adjective
en-adj er- Of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible.
- In the context of "figuratively": Of policies and rules and their application and enforcement, inflexible.
- Of a person, formal in behavior, unrelaxed.
- Harsh, severe.
- He was eventually caught, and given a stiff fine.
- Of muscles, or parts of the body, painful, as a result of
excessive, or unaccustomed exercise.
- My legs are stiff after climbing that hill yesterday.
Translations
of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible
- Finnish: jäykkä
- French: rigide
- German: steif, starr
- Japanese: 硬い
- Russian: жёсткий, негибкий
figuratively: of policies and rules and their
application and enforcement
- Finnish: kankea
- Japanese: 固い
- Russian: жёсткий, непоколебимый, непреклонный
of a person, formal in behavior, unrelaxed
- Finnish: jäykkä
- Japanese: 固い
- Russian: холодный, чопорный
colloquial: harsh, severe
- Finnish: kova
- Japanese: 堅い
- Russian: строгий, суровый
of muscles, or parts of the body
- Finnish: jäykkä, kankea
- Japanese: 凝る
- Russian: окостеневший, одеревенелый
- ttbc Bulgarian: твърд (1)
- ttbc French: raide, rigide
- ttbc Indonesian: kaku, keras
- ttbc Interlingua: rigide, inflexibile
- ttbc Italian: rigido
- ttbc Kurdish: ,
- ttbc Portuguese: duro, rígido
- ttbc Spanish: tieso, rígido
- ttbc Swedish: styv, strikt
Noun
- An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction,
skill, or education, often a working stiff or lucky stiff.
- A Working Stiff's Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember was published in 2003.
- 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.
- A cadaver, a dead person.
- A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
See also
Translations
average person, usually male
- Finnish: heppu, hemmo, heebo
- Japanese: オッサン
person who is deceived
- Finnish: uhri
- Japanese: カモ
- Russian: лох
slang: cadaver, dead person
- Bulgarian: труп
- French: macchabée
- German: Steifer
- Russian: труп, жмурик
US: person who leaves without paying the bill
Verb
- 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…].
- 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.
- 2007, Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before, page 154
- Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.
Translations
to fail to pay money one owes
- Japanese: 払い忘れる
- Swedish: sjappa
to tip ungenerously
to cheat someone
Extensive Definition
Stiff may refer to:
- Stiffness, a material's resistance to bending
- Stiff differential equation, an equation that exhibits behaviour at two widely different scales (the differential equations describing stiff materials are stiff differential equations)
- Stiff: The Curious Lives of Human Cadavers, a book about corpses by Mary Roach
- Stiff, the
first novel by Shane
Maloney in his Murray Whelan series.
- Stiff, an Australian TV movie based on the Maloney novel, starring David Wenham as Murray Whelan
- Stiff pattern or Stiff diagram, a method of plotting anion and cation concentrations in meq/L http://www.id.blm.gov/planning/scmdeis/Appendices/Appendix%203A-6.pdf
- Stiff Records, a British record label
- Stiff also has two uses in professional
wrestling:
- Stiff, used to describe how hard a wrestler is attacking his/her opponent
- A term used when a promoter does not pay his/her wrestlers (similar to slang regarding tipping)
- A stiff drink can be a drink with a high percentage of alcohol.
Synonyms, Antonyms and Related Words
Arab,
Bowery bum, Latinate, a
bit much, abandoned,
abusive, adamant, adamantine, afflictive, alcoholic, all thumbs,
aloof, arduous, arid, artificial, ashes, austere, awkward, balker, balky horse, barren, beach bum, beachcomber, beggar, beggarly fellow, blah, blank, blighter, blind, blind drunk, bloodless, blotto, blue-collar worker,
blunderheaded,
blundering, bo, body, bold, bombastic, bones, boorish, boundless, breadwinner, brisk, brittle, buckram, budmash, bum, bumbling, bummer, bungling, butterfingered, cadaver, caitiff, carcass, careless, carrion, cartilaginous, cast-iron,
casual, casual laborer,
ceremonious,
challenging,
characterless,
cheapskate, chewy, chilly, clay, clownish, clumsy, clumsy-fisted, cohesive, cold, colorless, common laborer,
compact, cool, coriaceous, corpse, corpus delicti, costly, cramped, crock, crowbait, cruel, cumbersome, cumbrous, day laborer, dead, dead as mutton, dead body,
dead man, dead person, dear, dear-bought, decedent, dense, derelict, determined, devil, difficult, dismal, distressing, dog, dogged, dogie, dour, draggy, drastic, drearisome, dreary, drifter, drunkard, dry, dry bones, dryasdust, dull, durable, dust, dusty, earth, effete, egregious, elephantine, embalmed
corpse, employee,
empty, energetic, enormous, etiolated, exaggerated, excessive, excruciating, exhausting, exorbitant, expensive, extravagant, extreme, fabulous, factory worker,
fade, fancy, fatiguing, fibrous, fingers all thumbs,
firm, fit for sea, flat, flinty, flunky, food for worms, forced, forceful, formal, free lance, free-lancer,
fresh, full-time worker,
fumbling, fundamentalist, gamin, gamine, garron, gauche, gawkish, gawky, gigantic, gluttonous, goat, gone to seed,
good-for-naught, good-for-nothing, graceless, grim, gristly, guinde, gusty, guttersnipe, hack, had, halting, ham-fisted, ham-handed,
hand, hard, hard-core, hardened, hardy, harrowing, harsh, haughty, heavy, heavy-handed, helpless, hidebound, high, high-priced, ho-hum, hobo, hollow, homeless waif, howling, hulking, hulky, human wreck, hurtful, hyperbolic, hypertrophied, idler, immoderate, immovable, immutable, implacable, impliable, in buckram,
inane, incontinent, indomitable, industrial
worker, inelastic,
inelegant, inexcitable, inexorable, inflexible, inkhorn, inordinate, insipid, intemperate, intense, intransigent, iron, ironbound, ironclad, ironhanded, irreconcilable, jade, jejune, jobber, jobholder, jughead, labored, laborer, laboring man, laborious, landloper, lasting, late lamented, lazzarone, leaden, leatherlike, leathery, left-hand,
left-handed, lifeless,
loafer, losel, loutish, low-spirited, lowlife, lubberly, lumbering, lumpish, luxurious, maladroit, mannered, mauvais sujet, mean
wretch, menial, merciless, migrant, miser, moiler, monstrous, mortal remains,
mucker, mudlark, mummification, mummy, muscle-bound, nag, navvy, no-good, not affordable,
oafish, obdurate, obstinate, of great cost,
office temporary, on the downgrade, organic remains, orthodox, out, out cold, out of bounds, out of
condition, out of shape, out of sight, out of training, outrageous, overbig, overcome, overdeveloped, overgreat, overgrown, overlarge, overmuch, overpowering, overweening, overwhelming, painful, pale, pallid, paralyzed, passed out, pauvre
diable, pedantic,
pedestrian, petrified, piker, pilgarlic, plodding, plug, pointless, pokerlike, poky, pompous, ponderous, poor creature, poor
devil, potent, powerful, premium, pricey, prim, procrustean, proletarian, punishing, punitive, purist, puristic, puritan, puritanic, ragamuffin, ragman, ragpicker, ramrodlike, relentless, relics, reliquiae, remains, renitent, reserved, resistant, resolute, resolved, rich, rigid, rigorist, rigoristic, rigorous, roarer, rock-ribbed, rockbound, rodlike, rogue, ropy, rosinante, rough, rounder, roustabout, run to seed,
rusty, sad case, sad sack,
salaried worker, scalawag, sea-kindly, seaworthy, self-employed
person, servant,
sesquipedalian,
severe, sinewy, skeleton, ski bum, skid-row
bum, skinflint,
slipping, sloppy, slow, snobbish, snooty, snug, soft, solemn, solid, solidified, spanking, spiritless, standoffish, starch, starched, starchy, stark, staunch, steady, steely, steep, sterile, stern, stiff as buckram, stiffened, stilted, stodgy, stone-cold, stone-dead,
stoned, straightlaced, straitlaced, stray, street Arab, street urchin,
stringy, strong, stubborn, stuffy, sumptuous, sundowner, superficial, surf bum,
swagman, swagsman, tasteless, tatterdemalion, taut, tedious, temporary, tenacious, tender, tenement of clay, tennis
bum, tense, the dead, the
deceased, the defunct, the departed, the loved one, thick, tight, tightwad, tiring, toiler, toilsome, too much, top, tormenting, torturous, tough, tough as leather, tramp, truant, turgid, turnpiker, unaffected, unalterable, unbearable, unbending, unbridled, unchangeable, uncompromising, unconscionable, uncouth, under the table,
undue, unflexible, unfriendly, ungainly, ungiving, ungraceful, unhandy, unlively, unmoved, unpayable, unreasonable, unrelaxed, unrelenting, unrestrained, untiring, unwieldy, unyielding, uphill, uptight, urchin, vag, vagabond, vagrant, vapid, vaurien, vigorous, virgate, viscid, wage earner, wage slave,
wageworker, waif, waifs and strays, wastrel, waterproof, watertight, weatherly, whistler, wiry, wooden, worker, workgirl, workhand, working girl,
workingman, workingwoman, workman, worthless fellow,
wretch