stiff

Etymology

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.

adj

1. (of an object) Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
   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, →OCLC, PC, scene: Xawin
2. (figurative, of policies and rules and their application and enforcement) Inflexible; rigid.
3. (of a person) Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
4. (colloquial) Harsh, severe.
   He was eventually caught, and given a stiff fine.
   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
5. (of muscles or parts of the body) Painful 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
   In the end, perhaps these deflections are easier than confronting the reality and debunking some of the less helpful stories a certain section of England likes to tell about itself. Much easier to just order another stiff one, and raise the old toast: “My country, right or wrong!” 2023-07-04, Marina Hyde, “Who’s for political Bazball with Rishi? Voters? Tories? Anyone?”, in The Guardian
7. (informal) Dead, deceased.
8. (of the penis) Erect.
9. 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.
10. (cooking, of whipping cream or egg whites) Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.
    beat the egg whites until they are stiff
11. (mathematics) Of an equation: for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
12. (nautical) Keeping upright.
13. (golf) 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
14. (professional wrestling, of a strike) Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.

noun

1. (slang, chiefly Canada, US) 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! 1969-12-07, 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, slang, by extension) A customer who does not leave a tip.
7. (blackjack) Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
8. (finance, slang) Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
9. (prison slang) A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

verb

1. To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.
   Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.
   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
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
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 stiffed 1978, Lou Reed (lyrics and music), “Street Hassle”, in Street Hassle

adv

1. (nautical) 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. 23 Oct 1849, Herman Melville, edited by Howard C. Horsforth and Lynn Horth, The Writings of Herman Melville: Journals, volume 15, published 1989, page 9
   At about 11.30 am it rained tremendously and blew very stiff. 16 Sept 1871, W.A. Crowther, Diary