stuff

From Late Middle English stuffen (“to equip, furnish”), from Old French estoffer ("to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff"; > French étoffer and étouffer), from Frankish *stopfōn, *stoppōn (“to cram, plug, stuff”), from Proto-Germanic *stuppōną (“to clog up, block, fill”). Cognate with Old High German stoffōn, stopfōn (“to plug, stuff”), Old English stoppian (“to stop up, close”) and Albanian shtyp (“to press, squeeze, stuff”). Compare Dutch stof, and German Stoff. More at stop.

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /stʌf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌf

stuff (usually uncountable, plural stuffs)

1. Miscellaneous items; things; (with possessive) personal effects.

   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.

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart; Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, OCLC 20230794, page 01:

     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.

2. (slang, informal) Things; trivial details.

   I had to do some stuff.

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

   Synonyms: matter; see also Thesaurus:substance

   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir John Davies

     The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.

   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     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).

4. A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
   • 1857, The National Magazine (volumes 10-11, page 350)

     "And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p.147:

     She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.

5. Abstract substance or character.
   • c.1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2, 91–94:

     When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff

   • c.1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4, scene 1, 156–157:

     We are such stuff / As dreams are made on

6. (informal) Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.

   Synonyms: doodad, thingamabob; see also Thesaurus:thingy

   Can I have some of that stuff on my ice-cream sundae?

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     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.”

7. (slang) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.

   Synonyms: dope, gear; see also Thesaurus:recreational drug

   • 1947, William Burroughs, letter, 11 March:

     For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.

8. (obsolete, uncountable) Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
   • (Can we date this quote?) Sir John Hayward

     He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.

9. (obsolete) A medicine or mixture; a potion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

10. (obsolete) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash.

    Synonyms: garbage, rubbish; see also Thesaurus:trash

    • (Can we date this quote?) John Dryden

      Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.

11. (nautical) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ham. Nav. Encyc to this entry?)

12. Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

• The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts. In the UK & 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.

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

1. (transitive) To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.

   She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret stuffing recipe.

   • Dryden

     Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     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.

2. (transitive) To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.

   He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.

   • Francis Bacon

     Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together […] and they retain smell and colour.

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

   I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.

5. (transitive, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To break. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (transitive, vulgar, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To sexually penetrate. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
7. (transitive) To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.

   I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.

8. To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
9. (transitive) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
   • Shakespeare

     I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

10. (transitive) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
    • Jonathan Swift

      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.

11. (transitive, dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
12. (transitive, computing) To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.
13. (takes a reflexive pronoun) To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.

• (to sexually penetrate): fuck, root, screw
• (eat): fill one's face, feed one's face

• stuffing
• stuff the ballot box
• stuffy

stuff

1. (slang) A filler term used to dismiss explanation.

   "Why are you so sad, Joseph?" "Well...stuff."

• Tuffs, tuffs