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Stiff   /stɪf/   Listen
adjective
Stiff  adj.  (compar. stiffer; superl. stiffest)  
1.
Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints. "(They) rising on stiff pennons, tower The mid aerial sky."
2.
Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.
3.
Firm; strong; violent; difficult to oppose; as, a stiff gale or breeze.
4.
Not easily subdued; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious; as, a stiff adversary. "It is a shame to stand stiff in a foolish argument." "A war ensues: the Cretans own their cause, Stiff to defend their hospitable laws."
5.
Not natural and easy; formal; constrained; affected; starched; as, stiff behavior; a stiff style. "The French are open, familiar, and talkative; the Italians stiff, ceremonious, and reserved."
6.
Harsh; disagreeable; severe; hard to bear. (Obs. or Colloq.) "This is stiff news."
7.
(Naut.) Bearing a press of canvas without careening much; as, a stiff vessel; opposed to crank.
8.
Very large, strong, or costly; powerful; as, a stiff charge; a stiff price. (Slang)
Stiff neck, a condition of the neck such that the head can not be moved without difficulty and pain.
Synonyms: Rigid; inflexible; strong; hardly; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious; harsh; formal; constrained; affected; starched; rigorous.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Stiff" Quotes from Famous Books



... quite dusk before he reached the hotel. The country was all new and strange to him, and he had missed his way more than once. But though he was tired, and stiff, and hungry, he felt that his mental energies were braced, his mind at ease, and the disturbing and torturing memories of the previous night no longer ...
— The Mystery of a Turkish Bath • E.M. Gollan (AKA Rita)

... and gave me time. She was in an ecstasy; reasoning, supplicating, conjuring, panting. I, her friends, the whole world must join her: and join her I did. It was the very relief of which hypocrisy stood in need. I entreated this straight-backed youth, stiff in determination, to condescend to lend a pitying ear to our petitions; to suffer us to permeate his bowels of compassion, and avert this fatal and impending cloud, fraught ...
— Anna St. Ives • Thomas Holcroft

... the evidence is slender, but idolatry in the sense of "image-worship" is frequently mentioned in the lives of early saints.[982] Gildas also speaks of images "mouldering away within and without the deserted temples, with stiff and deformed features."[983] This pathetic picture of the forsaken shrines of forgotten gods may refer to Romano-Celtic images, but the "stiff and deformed features" suggest rather native art, the art of a people unskilful at reproducing the human form, however artistic ...
— The Religion of the Ancient Celts • J. A. MacCulloch

... used to at home. When they passed through the village, nodding and smiling to nearly every one they met, and making little friendly remarks to the people at their cottage doors, she could not help thinking of her stiff walk in the park with Miss Mervyn, which always lasted a certain time if it was fine, and from which she often came back feeling very cross. If the walk at Fieldside were "odd," it was certainly amusing, and she began to wish there ...
— Black, White and Gray - A Story of Three Homes • Amy Walton

... gold crescents from Guiana. Out swung the stars, blazing, mighty, with black spaces in between. Again rang the trumpet, a high voice proclaiming eternal endeavor. The wind began to blow, and on the plain the cacti, gloomy and fantastic sentinels, moved their stiff bodies, waved their twisted arms in gestures of strangeness and horror. The Spaniard turned on his heel, went down to his men-at-arms where they kept watch and ward, and at midnight, riding like Death on a great, pale steed, led a hundred horsemen out ...
— Sir Mortimer • Mary Johnston


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