stiff
/stɪf/ adjective, noun, verb, adverb, proper noun
Forms stiffer stiffest stiffs stiffing stiffed
- adjective (of an object) Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
- adjective (figurative, of policies and rules and their application and enforcement) Inflexible; rigid.
- adjective (of a person) Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
- adjective (colloquial) Harsh, severe. “He was eventually caught, and given a stiff fine.”
- adjective (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.”
- adjective Potent. “a stiff drink; a stiff dose; a stiff breeze”
- adjective (informal) Expensive, pricey.
- adjective (informal) Dead, deceased.
- noun (slang, chiefly Canada, US) An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education. “working stiff”
- noun (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.”
- noun (slang) A cadaver; a dead person.
- noun (slang) A flop; a commercial failure.
- noun (US, slang) A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
- noun (US, slang, by extension) A customer who does not leave a tip.
- noun (blackjack) Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
- noun (finance, slang) Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
- verb To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily. “He stiffed me on the tip.”
- verb To cheat someone.
- verb To tip ungenerously.
- verb (slang) To kill.
Synonyms
firm stark brutal heavy powerful strong departed no more asleep at rest blessed cadaverous clay-cold deceased breathless resting cold decomposed defunct expired cadaver corpse clay remains starchy buckram potent steadfast steady unbendable
Antonyms
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 West 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.
English surname, from the adjective stiff.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints.
- adjective Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.
Etymology [OE. stif, AS. stif; akin to D. stijf, G. steif, Dan. stiv, Sw. styf, Icel. stifr, Lith. stipti to be stiff; cf. L. stipes a post, trunk of a tree, stipare to press, compress. Cf. Costive, Stifle, Stipulate, Stive to stuff.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “stiff”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details