stuff

English Online Dictionary. What means stuff‎? What does stuff mean?

English

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /stʌf/
• (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA^(key): /stɐf/
• (Northern England) IPA^(key): /stʊf/
• Rhymes: -ʌf

Etymology 1

From Middle English stuf, stuffe, borrowed from Medieval Latin stuffa and its etymon Old French estofe, estoffe, estuf, estuffe, stoffe, from 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.

Noun

stuff (usually uncountable, plural stuffs)

1. (informal) Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.
   1. (obsolete, uncountable) Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
2. (informal) Unspecified things or matters.

3. The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.

   Synonyms: matter, ingredients, constituents; see also Thesaurus:substance

   1. (archaic) A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
   2. (archaic) Boards used for building.
   3. Abstract/figurative substance or character.
   4. Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.
4. (informal) Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.

   Synonyms: doodad, thingamabob; see also Thesaurus:thingy
5. (slang) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.

   Synonyms: dope, gear; see also Thesaurus:recreational drug
6. (obsolete) A medicine or mixture; a potion.
7. (sometimes euphemistic) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language.

   Synonyms: garbage, rubbish, nonsense, stuff and nonsense; see also Thesaurus:trash, Thesaurus:nonsense
8. (nautical) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
9. (slang, criminal argot, dated) Money.

Usage notes

• The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts. In the UK and Commonwealth it designates the cloth from which legal and academic gowns are made, except for the gowns of Queen's/King's/State Counsel, which are (often in contradistinction) made of silk.

Synonyms

• (Placeholder name) See Thesaurus:thingy

Derived terms

Descendants

• → Irish: stuif

Translations

Etymology 2

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.

Verb

stuff (third-person singular simple present stuffs, present participle stuffing, simple past and past participle stuffed)

1. (transitive) To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
2. (transitive) To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
3. (transitive, cooking) To fill with seasoning.

4. (transitive) To load goods into (a container) for transport.
5. (transitive, used in the passive) To sate.

6. (pronominal) To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.

   Synonyms: fill one's face, feed one's face, stuff one's face

7. (transitive, British, Australia, New Zealand) To break; to destroy.

8. (transitive, vulgar, British, Australia, New Zealand) To sexually penetrate.

   Synonyms: fuck, root, screw

9. (transitive, mildly vulgar, often imperative) Used to contemptuously dismiss or reject something. See also stuff it.
10. (informal) To heavily defeat or get the better of.

11. (transitive) To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.

12. To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
13. (transitive) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
14. (transitive) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
15. (transitive, dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
16. (transitive, computing) To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “stuff”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.
• William Dwight Whitney, Benjamin E[li] Smith, editors (1911), “stuff”, in The Century Dictionary […], New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., →OCLC.

Anagrams

• Tuffs, tuffs