Word.ws English Dictionary

stiff

/stɪf/

stiff adjective: rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.

Adjective

stiff (comparative stiffer, superlative stiffest)

  1. Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
    • “A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron;[…]. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff, retroussé moustache.1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter IX, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC
    • You have discovered the corpse of Captain Willem of the MSV Majesty. His stiff fingers are wrapped tightly around a small datapad.2008, BioWare, Mass Effect (Science Fiction), Redwood City: Electronic Arts, →ISBN, →OCLC, PC, scene: Xawin
    Synonyms:
    firm, stark
  2. (figuratively) Inflexible; rigid.
  3. Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
  4. (colloquial) Harsh, severe.
    • He was eventually caught, and given a stiff fine.
    • “Yes. I believe she has passed quite a stiff exam.”1920, Agatha Christie, The Mysterious Affair at Styles, London: Pan Books, published 1954, page 124
    Synonyms:
    brutal, heavy
  5. Painful or more rigid than usual as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.
    • My legs are stiff after climbing that hill yesterday.
  6. Potent.
    • a stiff drink; a stiff dose; a stiff breeze
    • [Badminton] was popular in India because of the climate, where it was played outdoors, but in England the stiff breezes made it impossible to play without heavily loaded shuttlecocks.1971, Gwen White, Antique Toys And Their Background, page 134
    Synonyms:
    powerful, strong
  7. (informal) Expensive, pricey.
    • He had the practised face of a dealer also. But he was a Jew and chaffering was in his blood, and he said, "A bit stiff, isn't it? I mean without a guarantee that it's by the original maker?"1950, Norman Lindsay, Dust or Polish?, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 158
  8. (informal) Dead, deceased.
  9. (slang) Erect.
    • Adieu! faint-hearted instrument of lust; / That falselie hath betrayde our equale trust. / Hence-forth no more will I implore thine ayde, / Or thee, or man of cowardize upbrayde. / My little dilldo shall suply their kinde: / A knaue, that moues as light as leaues by winde; / That bendeth not, nor...c. 1592–1593 (date written), Thomas Nash[e], “The Choosing of Valentines”, in John S[tephen] Farmer, editor, The Choise of Valentines: Or The Merie Ballad of Nash His Dildo […], London: Privately...
    Synonyms:
    hard, tumescent
  10. Having a dense consistency; thick; (by extension) Difficult to stir.
    • Adding too much peanut butter to your Peanut Sauce recipe may cause your sauce to turn out too stiff.
  11. Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.
    • beat the egg whites until they are stiff
  12. Of an equation, for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
Show 3 more meaningsShow fewer meanings
  1. Keeping upright.
  2. Of a shot, landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball with the next shot.
    • I go all out, go for the long ball, the stiff shots to the pin, aim for the back of the cup.1968, William Price Fox, Southern Fried Plus Six: Short Works of Fiction, page 219
  3. Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.

Noun

stiff (countable and uncountable, plural stiffs)

  1. (Canada, US, slang) An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education.
    • working stiff
    • The clerk shrugged: “That's the boss's little girl.” “Why, the lucky stiff!” said Keating. “He's been holding out on me.” “You misunderstood me,” the clerk said coldly. “It's his daughter. It's Dominique Francon.”1943, Ayn Rand, chapter IX, in The Fountainhead
  2. (slang) A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.
    • She convinced the stiff to go to her hotel room, where her henchman was waiting to rob him.
  3. (slang) A cadaver; a dead person.
    • This parrot is no more! It has ceased to be! It's expired and gone to meet its maker! This is a late parrot! It's a stiff! Bereft of life, it rests in peace! If you hadn't nailed it to the perch it would be pushing up the daisies!1969 December 7, Monty Python, “Full Frontal Nudity, Dead Parrot sketch”, in Monty Python's Flying Circus, spoken by Mr Praline (John Cleese)
  4. (slang) A flop; a commercial failure.
    • If the movie was a stiff it wasn't any of their specific faults. They were all in it together and they were jobbed in and jobbed out for two weeks and gone and they got a pile of money for their efforts.1994, Andy Dougan, The actors' director: Richard Attenborough behind the camera, page 63
    • They never did sell any records. I don't mean they didn't sell 100,000. I mean they didn't sell 5000. Total. National. Coast-to-coast. The record was a stiff.2016, Ralph J. Gleason, Toby Gleason, Music in the Air: The Selected Writings of Ralph J. Gleason
  5. (US, slang) A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
  6. (US, broadly, slang) A customer who does not leave a tip.
  7. Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
  8. (slang) Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
  9. (slang) A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

Verb

stiff (third-person singular simple present stiffs, present participle stiffing, simple past and past participle stiffed)

  1. To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.
    • He stiffed me on the tip.
    • Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.
  2. To cheat someone.
    • You see, poor Nonie really was stiffed by Adolph in his will. He really stiffed her, Rose, and I really wanted to right that wrong.1992, Stephen Birmingham, Shades of Fortune, page 451
    • The Donald moved on to how he had spent £100m on expensive plywood while renovating the golf club. The Scottish tradesmen must have seen him coming. It looks like Trump has been stiffed. So much for the art of the deal.2025 July 28, John Crace, “Sidekick Starmer can’t get a word in as The Donald dominates world’s most one-sided double act”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
  3. To tip ungenerously.
    • Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.2007, Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before, page 154
  4. (slang) To kill.
    • But you know it could be a hassle / Trying to explain myself to a police officer / About how it was your old lady got herself stiffed1978, Lou Reed, “Street Hassle”, in Street Hassle
  5. (informal) To be unsuccessful.
    • "Come To Me" moved but a few to buy a copy; "My Queen" stiffed in the stall.1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 18

Adverb

stiff (comparative more stiff, superlative most stiff)

  1. Of the wind, with great force; strongly.
    • At Feversham was a very High Tide in the Afternoon, tho' the Wind was Southerly, and blew very stiff, which the Seamen there wondered at.1731, John Lowthorp, Philosophical Transactions and Collections to the End of the Year MDCC, 4th edition, volume II, page 282
    • It soon blew stiff, & we scudded before it under double-reefed topsails, & mainsail hauled up.1849 October 23, Herman Melville, edited by Howard C. Horsforth and Lynn Horth, The Writings of Herman Melville: Journals, volume 15, published 1989, page 9
  2. (dated, slang) Very thoroughly.
    • Now I want you to take Vallett in hand and drill him stiff with everything that has to do with Tilehurst and Tapsfield.1934, Ernest Bramah, The Bravo of London

Proper noun capitalized: Stiff

Stiff (plural Stiffs)

  1. A surname.

stiff meaning in Hindi, Tamil, Urdu and Bengali

stiff in Hindi

stiff, inflexible
कड़ा kaṛā
stiff
कठोर kaṭhor

stiff in Tamil

வளையாத, விறைப்பான, கடினமான, இறுகிய, பிடிவாதமான

stiff in Urdu

stiff
کڑا kaṛā, کٹھن kaṭhin, کٹھور kaṭhōr

stiff in Bengali

stiff, fast
মজবুত mojbut
More languagesFewer languages
stiff in Malayalam
വളയാത്ത, പരുക്കനായ, വഴങ്ങാത്ത
stiff in Kannada
ಗರಿಮುರಿ, ಪೆಡಸು, ಬಗ್ಗದ, ಸ್ಥಿರವಾದ
stiff in Sanskrit
कठिन kaṭhina, जड jaḍa, स्तब्ध stabdhá
stiff in Assamese
থিৰ thir, ঠেৰেঙা thereṅa
stiff in Nepali
कडा kaḍā, कठोर kaṭhor, दह्रो dahro
stiff in Thai
แข็ง kɛ̌ng
stiff in Vietnamese
cứng

Examples of stiff in a sentence

  • To fit them for heavy loads on gradients as stiff as 1 in 45 in tropical conditions, these Class 90 diesels embody several unusual features, [...].1961 February, “New English Electric diesels for East Africa”, in Trains Illustrated, page 90:
  • Much easier to just order another stiff one, and raise the old toast: “My country, right or wrong!”2023 July 4, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian:
  • We asked one girl to explain how she felt when she was "stiffed." She said, You think of all the work you've done and how you've tried to please [them…].1946, William Foote Whyte, Industry and Society, page 129:
  • At about 11.30 am it rained tremendously and blew very stiff.1871 September 16, W.A. Crowther, Diary:

All 40 example sentences with stiff

Synonyms of stiff

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of stiff

Forms of stiff

Adjective
comparativestiffer
superlativestiffest
Noun
pluralstiffs
Verb
third-person singular presentstiffs
present participlestiffing
past participlestiffed
paststiffed
Adverb
comparativemore stiff
superlativemost stiff
Proper noun
pluralStiffs

Origin of stiff

From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English stīf, from Proto-West Germanic *stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz, from Proto-Indo-European *steypós. See also West Frisian stiif, Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif; also Latin stīpes, stīpō, from which English stevedore. The expected Modern English form would be /staɪf/; /stɪf/ is probably originally from compounds such as stiffly, where the vowel was shortened before a consonant cluster.

English surname, from the adjective stiff.

Words formed from stiff

Phrases with stiff

Words that rhyme with stiff

28 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about stiff

What does stiff mean?
Stiff means rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
What is stiff in Hindi?
Stiff in Hindi is कड़ा (kaṛā), कठोर (kaṭhor). See Stiff meaning in Hindi.
How do you use stiff in a sentence?
To fit them for heavy loads on gradients as stiff as 1 in 45 in tropical conditions, these Class 90 diesels embody several unusual features, [...].
What part of speech is stiff?
Stiff can be an adjective, a noun, a verb or an adverb.
How do you pronounce stiff?
Stiff is pronounced /stɪf/.

Words near stiff in the dictionary

  1. sties
  2. stiesful
  3. STIF
  4. stifado
  5. stifados
  6. stiff
  7. stiff 'un
  8. stiff 'uns
  9. stiff as a board
  10. stiff as a poker
  11. stiff cheddar

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: stiff (page history and authors); Stiff (page history and authors); कठोर (Hindi) (page history and authors); stiff (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); کٹھن (Urdu) (page history and authors); মজবুত (Bengali) (page history and authors); stiff (Malayalam Wiktionary) (page history and authors); stiff (Kannada Wiktionary) (page history and authors); कठिन (Sanskrit) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-stiff.ogg.

Cite this entry: “stiff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/stiff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.