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Stiff   /stɪf/   Listen
Stiff

adjective
(compar. stiffer; superl. stiffest)
1.
Not moving or operating freely.
2.
Powerful.  "A stiff breeze"
3.
Rigidly formal.  Synonyms: buckram, starchy.  "The letter was stiff and formal" , "His prose has a buckram quality"
4.
Having a strong physiological or chemical effect.  Synonyms: potent, strong.  "Potent liquor" , "A potent cup of tea" , "A stiff drink"
5.
Marked by firm determination or resolution; not shakable.  Synonyms: firm, steadfast, steady, unbendable, unfaltering, unshakable, unwavering.  "A firm mouth" , "Steadfast resolve" , "A man of unbendable perseverence" , "Unwavering loyalty"
6.
Incapable of or resistant to bending.  Synonym: rigid.  "A table made of rigid plastic" , "A palace guardsman stiff as a poker" , "Stiff hair" , "A stiff neck"
noun
1.
An ordinary man.  "A working stiff"
2.
The dead body of a human being.  Synonyms: cadaver, clay, corpse, remains.  "The end of the police search was the discovery of a corpse" , "The murderer confessed that he threw the stiff in the river" , "Honor comes to bless the turf that wraps their clay"
adverb
1.
Extremely.  "Frightened stiff"
2.
In a stiff manner.  Synonym: stiffly.



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"Stiff" Quotes from Famous Books



... eating a single meal, and if you do not feel inclined to eat, force yourself to do it; for, if you neglect your food, that terrible fiend, Delirium Tremens, will have you in his savage grasp before you know it. Every morning after a spree, take a good stiff horn of brandy, and soon afterwards a glass of plain soda, which will cool you off. Never drink gin—it is vulgar stuff, not fit to be used by gentlemen.—When you desire to reform from drinking, never break off abruptly, which is dangerous; but taper ...
— My Life: or the Adventures of Geo. Thompson - Being the Auto-Biography of an Author. Written by Himself. • George Thompson

... regular Dutch army will compare favourably with any of their neighbours. They are not as stiff on parade as the Germans, and they are more solid than the French. Their physique is good, although, owing to the practice of purchasing a substitute, which has too lately ceased to allow of the change to come into ...
— Dutch Life in Town and Country • P. M. Hough

... hit by a piece of a French shell," the latter replied. "Fortunately it did not come straight at me, but scraped along my ribs, laying them pretty well bare. As it was a month ago, it is quite healed up; but I am very stiff still, and am obliged to be very careful in my movements. If I forget all about it, and give a turn suddenly, I regularly yell; for it feels as if a red-hot iron had been stuck against me. However, I have learned to be careful and, as long as ...
— Under Wellington's Command - A Tale of the Peninsular War • G. A. Henty

... stop at all, let's sleep a while," said the Very Young Man. "A little rest only gets you stiff. It's a pretty exposed place out here though, isn't it, to sleep?" he added, thinking of the ...
— The Girl in the Golden Atom • Raymond King Cummings

... been embalmed in a man's book, simply because an attractive woman once wore something like it when she fed the novelist. Unbalanced by the joy of the situation, he did not accurately observe the garb of the ministering angel, and hence we read of "a clinging white gown" in the days of stiff silks and rampant crinoline; of "the curve of the upper arm" when it took five yards for a pair of sleeves, and of "short walking skirts" during the reign ...
— Threads of Grey and Gold • Myrtle Reed


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