Definition of "stuff"

stuff

/stʌf/

noun
usually uncountable, plural stuffs
1. (informal) Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.
  Quotations
  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.
  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, page 01
  1. (obsolete, uncountable) Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
    Quotations
    and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
    1611, Bible, 1 Samuel 25:13, KJV
    He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.
    1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI
2. (informal) Unspecified things or matters.
3. The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.
  Quotations
  The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.
  1697, John Davies, A Poem on the Immortality of the Soul
  Pound an onion, warm a spoonful of ghee and throw in the onion, brown it slightly, add your curry stuff, brown this till it smells pleasantly, […]
  1887, Indian Cookery "Local" for Young Housekeepers: Second Edition, page 67
  1. (archaic) A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
    Quotations
    Without waiting for a reply, she unbound the veil from her head, and took off the loose black novice's robe, which she had put over a gray stuff dress similar to that worn by Lucy.
    1834, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], chapter VII, in Francesca Carrara. […], volume III, London: Richard Bentley, […], (successor to Henry Colburn), page 51
    "And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.
    1857, The National Magazine, volumes 10-11, page 350
    She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.
    1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, page 147
  2. (archaic) Boards used for building.
  3. Abstract/figurative substance or character.
    Quotations
    When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff
    1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Iulius Cæsar”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene ii], lines 91–94
    We are such stuff / As dreams are made on
    c. 1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4, scene 1, 156–157:
  4. Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.
4. (informal) Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.
  Quotations
  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.”
  1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court
  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).
  2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist‎, volume 408, number 8847
5. (slang) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.
  Quotations
  For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.
  1947, William Burroughs, letter, 11 March
  For example, one addict would crack shorts (break and enter cars) and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.
  1975, Mary Sanches, Ben G. Blount, Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Use, page 47
6. (obsolete) A medicine or mixture; a potion.
  Quotations
  I […] did compound for her / A certaine ſtuffe, which being tane, would ceaſe / The preſent powre of life […] .
  1611 April (first recorded performance), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Cymbeline”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act V, scene v], page 397, column 1
7. (sometimes euphemistic) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language.
  Quotations
  Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.
  1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The First Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […]
  But the Butcher turned nervous, and dressed himself fine, / With yellow kid gloves and a ruff— / Said he felt it exactly like going to dine, / Which the Bellman declared was all "stuff."
  1876, Lewis Carroll, The Hunting of the Snark […] , London: Macmillan, Fit the Fourth.⁠ The Hunting
  Oh, stuff, Julia! I've given up chasing after will-o'-the-wisps like that.
  1912, Upton Sinclair, The Machine‎
8. (nautical) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
  Quotations
  The master, at my earnest solicitation, examined his vessel, and though he prefers the coal tar, yet he told me, there were shells sticking on, and that a very thin coat of stuff, if any, remained.
  1785, Pamphlets on British Shipping. 1785-1861, page 36
  On the last transverse planking, after: caulking and paying, he has laid on a coat of stuff, so hard when cold aš to resist a firm touch, and applied plain paper, then took heated band irons (such as women use) , and passed the iron from the centre of the sheet to the extremities, thus heating the stuff to make it adhere, pressing out the air, and laying it all flat and united with the course.
  1822, William Annesley, A New System of Naval Architecture, page 31
  While the ships were placed in ordinary “a thick coat of stuff” was applied to the hulls, and their awnings might be spread or sheds erected to provide some protection from sun and weather.
  2012, Thomas Williams, American Honor: The Story of Admiral Charles Stewart, page 561
9. (slang, criminal argot, dated) Money.
verb
third-person singular simple present stuffs, present participle stuffing, simple past and past participle stuffed
1. (transitive) To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
  Quotations
  Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
  1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Fifth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […]
2. (transitive) To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
  Quotations
  Put them [roses] into a […] glass, with narrow mouths, stuffing them close together […] and [they] retain […] smell […] [and] colour.
  1631, Francis [Bacon], “(please specify |century=I to X)”, in Sylua Syluarum: Or A Naturall Historie. In Ten Centuries. […], 3rd edition, London: […] William Rawley; [p]rinted by J[ohn] H[aviland] for William Lee […]
  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.
  1921 June, Margery Williams, “The Velveteen Rabbit: Or How Toys Become Real”, in Harper’s Bazar, volume LVI, number 6 (2504 overall), New York, N.Y.: International Magazine Company
  It's our life you're taking, you're making us poor, you have no right, these slaves are ours, until Marie wanted to fill their mouths with cotton, all the cotton that had ever been picked by their slaves, just stuff it down their mouths until they were as fat and soft as the huge pillows they slept on while their slaves slept on hard boards and straw in filthy rat-infested cabins.
  2004, Orson Scott Card, The Crystal City: The Tales of Alvin Maker, Book Six, Tom Doherty Associates, page 241
  You can't just stuff it in a vault somewhere and cross your fingers.
  2007, Iceland Review, H.J. Hamar, page 227
  “I will sort this stuff out and repack it.” “No time! Just stuff it inside baskets and shove them to the back. We can sort through it all later.”
  2011, Shirley G. East, The Dream Hunters Epoch: The Paleo Indians Series, Xlibris Corporation, page 528
3. (transitive, cooking) To fill with seasoning.
4. (transitive) To load goods into (a container) for transport.
5. (transitive, used in the passive) To sate.
6. (takes a reflexive pronoun) To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.
7. (transitive, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To break; to destroy.
8. (transitive, vulgar, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To sexually penetrate.
9. (transitive, mildly vulgar, often imperative) Used to contemptuously dismiss or reject something. See also stuff it.
  Quotations
  Jenny nodded in sympathy, spotting Ali's new iPod speakers sitting on top of the TV. Simone smiled and coughed. 'He forgot to take them with him. He can stuff it, it was my money.'
  2009, Matthew Hall, The Coroner, Pan Macmillan, page 218
  'Well,' she said, 'you can take your job and you can stuff it, because...' She stopped dead. 'My God,' she whispered, 'I've been wanting to say that to somebody all my life, and now I actually have. Whee!' She pulled herself together, straightened her back and picked up her handbag. 'Sorry,' she said, 'but I'm through.'
  2009, Tom Holt, Here Comes The Sun, Hachette UK, page 80
  And it rained everyday and the seas were rough everyday and I felt ill everyday and I thought, if this is sailing you can stuff it!
  2015, Chris Dunning, About a Village Boy: A memoir, Troubador Publishing, page 91
10. (informal) To heavily defeat or get the better of.
11. (transitive) To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.
12. To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
13. (transitive) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
  Quotations
  I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.
  1598–1599 (first performance), William Shakespeare, “Much Adoe about Nothing”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, [Act III, scene iv]
14. (transitive) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
  Quotations
  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.
  1724, Jonathan Swift, “Drapier's Letters”, in 5
15. (transitive, dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
16. (transitive, computing) To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.

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