Etimology
From Middle English stuffen (“to equip, furnish”), borrowed from Old French estoffer, estofer (“to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff”), borrowed from Old High German stoffōn, from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn (“to clog up, block, fill”). More at stop.
noun
stuff (usually uncountable, plural stuffs)
(informal) Miscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.
(informal) Unspecified things or matters.
The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.
(informal) Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.
(slang) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.
(obsolete) A medicine or mixture; a potion.
(sometimes euphemistic) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language.
(nautical) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.
(slang, criminal argot, dated) Money.
Examples
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.
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.
and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff.
He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.
I had to do some stuff.
Synonyms: matter, ingredients, constituents; see also Thesaurus:substance
The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.
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, […]
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.
"And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.
She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.
When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff
We are such stuff / As dreams are made on
Synonyms: doodad, thingamabob; see also Thesaurus:thingy
Can I have some of that stuff on my ice-cream sundae?
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.”
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 .
Synonyms: dope, gear; see also Thesaurus:recreational drug
For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.
For example, one addict would crack shorts and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.
I […] did compound for her / A certaine ſtuffe, which being tane, would ceaſe / The preſent powre of life […] .
Synonyms: garbage, rubbish, nonsense, stuff and nonsense; see also Thesaurus:trash, Thesaurus:nonsense
Don't give me any of that 'what-about' stuff!
Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.
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."
Oh, stuff, Julia! I've given up chasing after will-o'-the-wisps like that.
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.
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 , 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.
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.
Related words
synonyms
(Placeholder name) See Thesaurus:thingy
verb
stuff (third-person singular simple present stuffs, present participle stuffing, simple past and past participle stuffed)
(transitive) To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
(transitive) To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
(transitive, cooking) To fill with seasoning.
(transitive) To load goods into (a container) for transport.
(transitive, used in the passive) To sate.
(takes a reflexive pronoun) To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.
(transitive, British, Australia, New Zealand) To break; to destroy.
(transitive, vulgar, British, Australia, New Zealand) To sexually penetrate.
(transitive, mildly vulgar, often imperative) Used to contemptuously dismiss or reject something. See also stuff it.
(informal) To heavily defeat or get the better of.
(transitive) To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.
To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
(transitive) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
(transitive) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
(transitive, dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
(transitive, computing) To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.
Examples
I'm going to stuff this pillow with feathers.
Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.
Put them [roses] into a […] glass, with narrow mouths, stuffing them close together […] and [they] retain […] smell […] [and] colour.
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.
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.
You can't just stuff it in a vault somewhere and cross your fingers.
“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.”
She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret recipe.
I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
Synonyms: fill one's face, feed one's face, stuff one's face
She sits on the sofa all day, watching TV and stuffing herself with cream buns.
He skidded off the road and totally stuffed his brand new car.
Synonyms: fuck, root, screw
His wife came home early and found him on the couch stuffing the maid.
Stuff your stupid rules, I'll do what I like.
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.'
'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.'
And it rained everyday[sic] and the seas were rough everyday and I felt ill everyday and I thought, if this is sailing you can stuff it!
Mudchester Rovers were stuffed 7-0 in the semi-final.
They totally stuffed us in that business deal.
I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.
I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.
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.