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Stuff   /stəf/   Listen
noun
Stuff  n.  
1.
Material which is to be worked up in any process of manufacture. "For the stuff they had was sufficient for all the work to make it, and too much." "Ambitions should be made of sterner stuff." "The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill."
2.
The fundamental material of which anything is made up; elemental part; essence. "Yet do I hold it very stuff o' the conscience To do no contrived murder."
3.
Woven material not made into garments; fabric of any kind; specifically, any one of various fabrics of wool or worsted; sometimes, worsted fiber. "What stuff wilt have a kirtle of?" "It (the arras) was of stuff and silk mixed, though, superior kinds were of silk exclusively."
4.
Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils. "He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff."
5.
A medicine or mixture; a potion.
6.
Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash. "Anger would indite Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write."
7.
(Naut.) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
8.
Paper stock ground ready for use. Note: When partly ground, called half stuff.
Clear stuff. See under Clear.
Small stuff (Naut.), all kinds of small cordage.
Stuff gown, the distinctive garb of a junior barrister; hence, a junior barrister himself. See Silk gown, under Silk.


verb
Stuff  v. t.  (past & past part. stuffed; pres. part. stuffing)  
1.
To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess; as, to stuff a bedtick. "Sometimes this crook drew hazel bought adown, And stuffed her apron wide with nuts so brown." "Lest the gods, for sin, Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin."
2.
To thrust or crowd; to press; to pack. "Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together... and they retain smell and color."
3.
To fill by being pressed or packed into. "With inward arms the dire machine they load, And iron bowels stuff the dark abode."
4.
(Cookery) To fill with a seasoning composition of bread, meat, condiments, etc.; as, to stuff a turkey.
5.
To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration. "I'm stuffed, cousin; I can not smell."
6.
To fill the skin of, for the purpose of preserving as a specimen; said of birds or other animals.
7.
To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material. "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."
8.
To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
9.
To put fraudulent votes into (a ballot box). (U. S.)


Stuff  v. i.  To feed gluttonously; to cram. "Taught harmless man to cram and stuff."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Stuff" Quotes from Famous Books



... myself this morning, for I love to come down to the beach and catch the early morning breeze off the ocean; and to tell the truth, I felt a little rusty after that hot punch I drank last night. I ain't much of a drinker, but once in awhile I like a little hot stuff on a chilly night. No, I ain't much of a drinker; when I was a young man I did not touch it at all, and maybe that's how I've lived to such a great age—yes, I am eighty-two years old, and I feel pretty brisk considering that I've ...
— Two Wonderful Detectives - Jack and Gil's Marvelous Skill • Harlan Page Halsey
... other time." Therewith showed he Hid 'mong the high heaped rocks a dusky grot Where never sunshine fell. A dismal spot Where dank the sea-weeds coiled and cold the air Swept through. And stooping, Eblis downward rolled Before her webs of woven stuff, in fold Of purple sheen, enwrought with flecks of gold. Great wefts of scarlet and of blue, thick strewn With pearls, or cleft with discs of jacinth stone; And drifts of silky woof and samite white, And warps of Orient ...
— Lilith - The Legend of the First Woman • Ada Langworthy Collier
... about theories: there's always a hole in them somewheres, sure, if you look close enough. It's just so with this one of Jim's. Look what billions and billions of stars there is. How does it come that there was just exactly enough star-stuff, and none left over? How does it come there ain't no ...
— Innocents abroad • Mark Twain
... neighbors close at hand and draws advantage from intimate relations with them. Antwerp not pitted against, but working with, Hamburg and Bremen; Liege, side by side with Essen's, Berlin's, and Swabia's gun factories—Cockerill in combination with Krupp; iron, coal, woven stuff from old Germany and Belgium, introduced into the markets of the world by one and the same commercial spirit; our Kamerun and their Congo—such a warm blaze of advantage has burned away many a hatred. The wise man wins as his friend the deadly foe whose skull he cannot split, ...
— New York Times Current History: The European War, Vol 2, No. 1, April, 1915 - April-September, 1915 • Various
... an empty basket in a market—a hungry, ragged, and forsaken little boy. This, it seems, ended the difficulty. The little chap unwillingly held out his hand. Upon that, the Indian took a bottle from his bosom, and poured out of it some black stuff, like ink, into the palm of the boy's hand. The Indian—first touching the boy's head, and making signs over it in the air—then said, "Look." The boy became quite stiff, and stood like a statue, looking into the ink in the ...
— The Moonstone • Wilkie Collins


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