Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- adj. Having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; impassive: "the incredibly massive and stolid bureaucracy of the Soviet system” ( John Kenneth Galbraith).
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- Heavy; dull; stupid; not easily moved; lacking in or destitute of susceptibility; denoting dullness or impassiveness: as, a stolid person; a stolid appearance.
- Synonyms Doltish, wooden.
Wiktionary
- adj. Having or revealing little emotion or sensibility.
GNU Webster's 1913
- adj. Hopelessly insensible or stupid; not easily aroused or excited; dull; impassive; foolish.
WordNet 3.0
- adj. having or revealing little emotion or sensibility; not easily aroused or excited
Etymologies
- Latin stolidus, stupid; see stel- in Indo-European roots.
Examples
“As Jess untied the Queen and helped her down, she saw Brian working hard to keep his expression stolid, to maintain the professional unseeing look all the guardsmen had long perfected.”
“From the label a stolid farmer smiled at her, the image as outdated as the 1950s Betty Crocker.”
“Joe asked, his expression stolid, only his eyes showing his nervous tension as he continually glanced from side to side, making certain nothing could creep up on them.”
Chrome Circle
“She stared at him in stolid wonder, but her only reply was to hold the door wider and say: "Come in an 'set wun't ye?”
“But though young, I was neither nervous nor imaginative; I was inclined to be what is termed stolid, that is to say, extremely matter-of-fact and practical.”
“As she stood there in stolid embarrassment polishing the shiny bar, Miss Levering clutched the tray to steady it, and with the other hand she pulled the pillow higher.”
“She swallowed bile and willed the pill to dissolve faster, sneaking a glance at her fellow commanding officers, all arrayed around the readout in stolid contemplation. “Looks like the blast points were precise, †one of the men observed, pointing out charred circles on the readout with his stylus. “They maximized human casualties rather than structural damage. †“That makes sense, †a blue-eyed woman replied. “That†™ s one of the few plants that isn†™ t automated.”
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“ Joe asked, his expression stolid, only his eyes showing his nervous tension as he continually glanced from side to side, making certain nothing could creep up on them.”
The Chrome Borne
“Ned had come to call the stolid German servant, was not present.”
Tom Swift and His Giant Cannon, or, the Longest Shots on Record
“The word literally means coarse or thick, and may suggest the idea of stolid insensibility as the last stage in the downward progress.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘stolid’.
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[Open] Correctly-spelled words that look like m...
Thanks to everyone who added to this list. (I moved it to a new URL, so all the words added on the first day are credited to me—sorry about that.)
(Here’s the original list with a slo...orignal, refect, collum, lightening, manakin, neumatic, mutch, miosis, radicle, tryptic, kyack, apatite and 117 more...
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SAT Words
But only the ones that I don't already know.
abase, abash, abominate, abstruse, acclivity, accolade, accost, adroit, adulate, adulterate, adumbrate, affray and 241 more...
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Phonestheme: ST-, the Defender
Grateful credit to http://reocities.com/SoHo/Studios/9783/phond1.html.
staunch, steadfast, stolid, strong, stay, steel, stiff, stubborn, stuffy, stable, stalwart, steady and 11 more...
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Flip your lid
gelid, eyelid, annelid, chilidog, holiday, stolid, cichlid, consolidate, pallid, sipunculid, valid, squalid and 71 more...
bilby
Stiff in midsummer green, the stolid hillsides
March with their trees, dependable and stanch,
Except where here and there a lawless maple
Thrusts to the sky one red, rebellious branch.
- Louis Untermeyer, 'Rebels'. Sep 21, 2009
Prolagus While stolido, in Italian, means idiot. Sep 9, 2008
oroboros See Bed. Jul 21, 2007
slumry a word that looks like its meaning, in my opinion Jul 20, 2007