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
- From Latin stolidus ("foolish, obtuse, slow"). (Wiktionary)
- Latin stolidus, stupid; see stel- in Indo-European roots. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
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“From the label a stolid farmer smiled at her, the image as outdated as the 1950s Betty Crocker.”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.”
“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.”
365 tomorrows » J. Loseth : A New Free Flash Fiction SciFi Story Every Day
“ 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.”
“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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501
Classic
mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado, toil, onus, aberration, abstruse, anomaly and 401 more...
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GRE Barron's 800
abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abject, abjure, abscission, abscond, abstemious, abstinence, abysmal, accretion and 787 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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GRE 2014
abase, abate, abdicate, aberrant, abeyance, abhor, abjure, abortive, abound, abrasive, abreast, abridge and 1577 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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501
Classic
irk, teem, blight, pith, moot, mete, ire, bane, bilk, boor, elan, ado and 401 more...
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501
Classic
aberration, abstruse, anomaly, assiduous, august, banal, boisterous, dulcet, epitome, impudent, insolent, mellifluous and 401 more...
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Introverted
Quiet, shy, Introverted, reserved, isolated, mysterious
abashed, alienated, alone, anonymous, antisocial, ascetic, asocial, austere, autonomous, awkward, bashful, clannish and 91 more...
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Lolita
Marat, diaphanous, stolid, inveigle, moll, domicile, pugilist, indigent, corpulent, erudite, coruscate, ameliorate and 16 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
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gre2
aberrant, aberration, aboveboard, abrasive, abstemious, acme, admonish, affable, affluent, alacrity, allegory, alleviate and 1908 more...
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GRE Reference
A list of words unfamiliar to me that I have repeatedly encountered in GRE question sets.
parochial, clique, salacious, aegis, ostracize, conceited, sacrilegious, inane, serendipity, gourmand, polemic, tenuous and 138 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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Words from Moby Dick
frigate, presumptuous, genteel, succor, hearthstone, gentry, factitious, bilious, insurgent, portent, enervate, genuflect and 303 more...
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Magoosh GRE
its a list of words borrowed from Magoosh GRE blog ,an indispensable resource for GRE test takers.
inimitable, exiguity, myriad, cornucopia, surfeit, glut, deluge, opaque, pellucid, grandiloquent, turgid, gadfly and 106 more...
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GRE Words
abjure, unswear, state, rescission, indemnification, ab, reny, abnegate, vitiated, vitiate, adumbrated, abash and 378 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for stolid.
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