stuff
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /stʌf/
ipa: /stɐf/
ipa: /stʊf/
rhymes: -ʌf
Forms: form: stuffs
form: stuffing
form: stuffed
form: stuffed
Etymology: From Middle English stuffen (“to equip, furnish”), borrowed from Old French estoffer, estofer (“to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff”), borrowed from Old High German stoffōn, from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn (“to clog up, block, fill”). More at stop.
Senses: examples: text: I'm going to stuff this pillow with feathers.
text: Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
ref: 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:
glosses: To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
examples: text: He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.
text: Put them [roses] into a[…] glass, with narrow mouths, stuffing them close together […] and [they] retain[…] smell […][and] colour.
ref: 1627 (indicated as 1626), Francis [Bacon], “(please specify the page, or |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], London: […] William Rawley […]; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […], →OCLC:
text: The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
ref: 1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company, →ISSN, →OCLC:
text: It's our life you're taking, you're making us poor, you have no right, these slaves are ours, until Marie wanted to fill their mouths with cotton, all the cotton that had ever been picked by their slaves, just stuff it down their mouths until they were as fat and soft as the huge pillows they slept on while their slaves slept on hard boards and straw in filthy rat-infested cabins.
ref: 2004, Orson Scott Card, The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Book Six, Tom Doherty Associates, →ISBN, page 241:
text: You can't just stuff it in a vault somewhere and cross your fingers.
ref: 2007, Iceland Review, H.J. Hamar, page 227:
text: “I will sort this stuff out and repack it.” “No time! Just stuff it inside baskets and shove them to the back. We can sort through it all later.”
ref: 2011, Shirley G. East, The Dream Hunters Epoch: The Paleo Indians Series, Xlibris Corporation, →ISBN, page 528:
glosses: To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
examples: text: She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret recipe.
topics: cooking
food
lifestyle
glosses: To fill with seasoning.
glosses: To load goods into (a container) for transport.
examples: text: I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
glosses: To sate.
raw_tags: used in the passive
examples: text: She sits on the sofa all day, watching TV and stuffing herself with cream buns.
synonyms: fill one's face
feed one's face
stuff one's face
glosses: To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.
examples: text: He skidded off the road and totally stuffed his brand new car.
glosses: To break; to destroy.
examples: text: His wife came home early and found him on the couch stuffing the maid.
synonyms: fuck
root
screw
glosses: To sexually penetrate.
examples: text: Stuff your stupid rules, I'll do what I like.
text: Jenny nodded in sympathy, spotting Ali's new iPod speakers sitting on top of the TV. Simone smiled and coughed. 'He forgot to take them with him. He can stuff it, it was my money.'
ref: 2009, Matthew Hall, The Coroner, Pan Macmillan, →ISBN, page 218:
text: 'Well,' she said, 'you can take your job and you can stuff it, because...' She stopped dead. 'My God,' she whispered, 'I've been wanting to say that to somebody all my life, and now I actually have. Whee!' She pulled herself together, straightened her back and picked up her handbag. 'Sorry,' she said, 'but I'm through.'
ref: 2009, Tom Holt, Here Comes The Sun, Hachette UK, →ISBN, page 80:
text: And it rained everyday^([sic]) and the seas were rough everyday and I felt ill everyday and I thought, if this is sailing you can stuff it!
ref: 2015, Chris Dunning, About a Village Boy: A memoir, Troubador Publishing, →ISBN, page 91:
glosses: Used to contemptuously dismiss or reject something. See also stuff it.
examples: text: Mudchester Rovers were stuffed 7–0 in the semi-final.
text: They totally stuffed us in that business deal.
glosses: To heavily defeat or get the better of.
examples: text: I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.
glosses: To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.
glosses: To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
examples: text: I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.
ref: 1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act III, scene iv]:
glosses: To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
examples: text: An Eastern king put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence, and ordered his hide to be stuffed into a cushion, and placed upon the tribunal.
ref: 1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 5:
glosses: To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
glosses: To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.
Derived terms: double-stuff
get stuffed
stuffed
stuffed up
stuffing
stuff one's face
stuff out
stuff the ballot box
stuff-up
stuff up
stuffy
stuff you