Pronunciations (4)
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/stʌf/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/stɐf/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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/stʊf/
Pronunciation notes
- Northern-England
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stʌf
Noun
Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.
Usage- Informal
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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What is all that stuff on your bedroom floor? He didn't want his pockets to bulge so he was walking around with all his stuff in his hands.
More examples (1)
The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face.
Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects. Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
Usage- Informal
- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.
Unspecified things or matters.
Usage- Informal
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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I had to do some stuff.
Andy Jackson puts it more bluntly: "Just because we are off the naughty step doesn't mean we can stop doing stuff. It's far from 'no more action'.
The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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Near-synonyms: constituents, ingredients; see also Thesaurus:substance
The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.
More examples (1)
Pound an onion, warm a spoonful of ghee and throw in the onion, brown it slightly, add your curry stuff, brown this till it smells pleasantly, […]
The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object. A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
Usage- Archaic
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Without waiting for a reply, she unbound the veil from her head, and took off the loose black novice's robe, which she had put over a gray stuff dress similar to that worn by Lucy.
"And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.
She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.
The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object. Boards used for building.
Usage- Archaic
- Uncountable
- usually
The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object. Abstract/figurative substance or character.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff
We are such stuff / As dreams are made on
The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object. Pulp; paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.
Usage- Dated
- Uncountable
- usually
Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.
Usage- Informal
- Uncountable
- usually
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Can I have some of that stuff on my ice-cream sundae?
More examples (2)
It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless.[…]You stand by, Janet, and wake me up if they do any of that running commentary stuff.”
The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).
Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.
Usage- Slang
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.
For example, one addict would crack shorts (break and enter cars) and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.
A medicine or mixture; a potion.
Usage- Obsolete
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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I[…]did compound for her / A certaine ſtuffe, which being tane, would ceaſe / The preſent powre of life[…].
Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language.
Usage- euphemistic
- sometimes
- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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Don't give me any of that 'what-about' stuff!
Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.
More examples (2)
But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine, / With yellow kid gloves and a ruff— / Said he felt it exactly like going to dine, / Which the Bellman declared was all "stuff."
Oh, stuff, Julia! I've given up chasing after will-o'-the-wisps like that.
A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
Usage- Uncountable
- usually
- Examples
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More examples (3)
The master, at my earnest solicitation, examined his vessel, and though he prefers the coal tar, yet he told me, there were shells sticking on, and that a very thin coat of stuff, if any, remained.
On the last transverse planking, after: caulking and paying, he has laid on a coat of stuff, so hard when cold aš to resist a firm touch, and applied plain paper, then took heated band irons (such as women use) , and passed the iron from the centre of the sheet to the extremities, thus heating the stuff to make it adhere, pressing out the air, and laying it all flat and united with the course.
While the ships were placed in ordinary “a thick coat of stuff” was applied to the hulls, and their awnings might be spread or sheds erected to provide some protection from sun and weather.
Money.
Usage- Dated
- Slang
- Uncountable
- usually
Verb
To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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I'm going to stuff this pillow with feathers.
Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.
Put them [roses] into a[…] glass, with narrow mouths, stuffing them close together […] and [they] retain[…] smell […][and] colour.
More examples (4)
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.
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.
You can't just stuff it in a vault somewhere and cross your fingers.
“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.”
To fill with seasoning.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret recipe.
To load goods into (a container) for transport.
Usage- Transitive
To sate.
Usage- Transitive
- used in the passive
- Examples
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I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.
Usage- pronominal
- usually
- Examples
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She sits on the sofa all day, watching TV and stuffing herself with cream buns.
More examples (1)
Delaford is a nice place, I can tell you; exactly what I call a nice old-fashioned place, full of comforts and conveniences; quite shut in with great garden walls that are covered with the best fruit-trees in the country; and such a mulberry tree in one corner! Lord! how Charlotte and I did stuff the only time we were there!
To break; to destroy.
Usage- Australia
- New-Zealand
- UK usage
- Transitive
- Examples
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He skidded off the road and totally stuffed his brand new car.
To sexually penetrate.
Usage- Australia
- New-Zealand
- UK usage
- Transitive
- Vulgar
- Examples
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His wife came home early and found him on the couch stuffing the maid.
Used to contemptuously dismiss or reject something. See also stuff it.
Usage- imperative
- mildly
- often
- Transitive
- Vulgar
- Examples
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Stuff your stupid rules, I'll do what I like.
More examples (2)
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.'
'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.'
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!
To heavily defeat or get the better of.
Usage- Informal
- Examples
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Mudchester Rovers were stuffed 7–0 in the semi-final.
They totally stuffed us in that business deal.
To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.
To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
- Examples
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More examples (1)
KANG: When I take this ship, I'll have Kirk's head stuffed and hung on his cabin wall. // MARA: They will kill us before we can act. // KANG: No, they wish to question us, learn our strength, our plans. They never will. // MARA: We are forty against four hundred. // KLINGON: Four thousand throats may be cut in one night by a running man. // KANG: Patience. Vigilance. They will make a mistake. Capture of the Enterprise will give us knowledge to end this war quickly.
To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.
To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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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.
To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
Usage- Dated
- Transitive
To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.
Usage- Transitive
Noun
the tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
-
coal is a hard black material
wheat is the stuff they use to make bread
miscellaneous unspecified objects
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the trunk was full of stuff
informal terms for personal possessions
- Synonyms
- Examples
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did you take all your clobber?
senseless talk
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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don't give me that stuff
unspecified qualities required to do or be something
- Broader terms
- Examples
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the stuff of heroes
you don't have the stuff to be a United States Marine
information in some unspecified form
- Broader terms
- Examples
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it was stuff I had heard before
there's good stuff in that book
a critically important or characteristic component
- Broader terms
- Examples
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suspense is the very stuff of narrative
Verb
cram into a cavity
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The child stuffed candy into his pockets
press or force
- Examples
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Stuff money into an envelope
She thrust the letter into his hand
obstruct
- Antonyms
- Examples
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My nose is all stuffed
Her arteries are blocked
overeat or eat immodestly; make a pig of oneself
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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She stuffed herself at the dinner
The kids binged on ice cream
treat with grease, fill, and prepare for mounting
- Broader terms
- Examples
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stuff a bearskin
fill tightly with a material
- Examples
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stuff a pillow with feathers
fill with a stuffing while cooking
- Synonyms
- Examples
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Have you stuffed the turkey yet?