Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun The material out of which something is made or formed; substance.
  • noun The essential substance or elements; essence.
  • noun Unspecified material.
  • noun Household or personal articles considered as a group.
  • noun Worthless objects.
  • noun Slang Specific talk or actions.
  • noun The control a player has over a ball, especially to give it spin, english, curve, or speed.
  • noun The spin, english, curve, or speed imparted to a ball.
  • noun Basketball A dunk shot.
  • noun Special capability.
  • noun Chiefly British Woven material, especially woolens.
  • noun Slang Money; cash.
  • noun Slang A drug, especially one that is illegal or habit-forming.
  • intransitive verb To pack (a container) tightly; cram.
  • intransitive verb To block (a passage); plug.
  • intransitive verb Basketball To block (a shot or an opponent who is shooting), especially before the ball leaves the shooter's hands.
  • intransitive verb To place forcefully into a container or space; thrust.
  • intransitive verb Sports To shoot (a ball or puck) forcefully into the goal from close range.
  • intransitive verb Basketball To dunk (the ball).
  • intransitive verb To fill with an appropriate stuffing.
  • intransitive verb To fill (an animal skin) to restore its natural form for mounting or display.
  • intransitive verb To cram with food.
  • intransitive verb To fill (the mind).
  • intransitive verb To put fraudulent votes into (a ballot box).
  • intransitive verb To apply a preservative and softening agent to (leather).
  • intransitive verb To overeat; gorge.
  • idiom (stuff it) Used as an intensive to express extreme anger, frustration, or disgust.
  • idiom (stuff (one's) face) To eat greedily.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • To fill with any kind of stuff or loose material; cram full; load to excess; crowd with something: as, to stuff the ears with cotton.
  • Specifically, to fill with stuffing or packing; cram the cavity of with material suitable for the special use or occasion: as, to stuff a cushion or a bedtick; to stuff a turkey or a leg of veal for roasting.
  • To cause to appear stuffed; puff or swell out; distend.
  • To fill the prepared skin of (an animal), for the purpose of restoring and preserving its natural form and appearance: the process includes wiring and mounting. See taxidermy and stuffing, n., 3.
  • Figuratively, to fill, cram, or crowd with something of an immaterial nature: as, to stuff a poem with mawkish sentiment.
  • To use as stuffing or filling; dispose of by crowding, cramming, or packing.
  • To constitute a filling for: be crowded into; occupy so as to fill completely.
  • To apply stuff to; treat with stuff, in some technical sense. See stuff, n., 4 .
  • To stock or supply; provide with a quota or outfit; furnish; replenish.
  • To deceive with humorous intent; gull.
  • To eat greedily; play the glutton.
  • noun Substance or material in some definite state, form, or situation; any particular kind, mass, or aggregation of matter or things; material in some distinct or limited sense, whether raw, or wrought or to be wrought into form.
  • noun Incorporeal or psychical substance of some special kind; that which arises from or constitutes mind, character, or quality; any immaterial effluence, influence, principle, or essence. See mind-stuff.
  • noun Goods; possessions in a general sense; baggage: now chiefly in the phrase household stuff.
  • noun Something made up, or prepared or designed, for some specific use.
  • noun A preparation of any kind to be swallowed, as food, drink, or medicine.
  • noun Ready money; cash; means in general.

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French estoffe, from estoffer, to equip, of Germanic origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Late Middle English stuffen ("to equip, furnish"), from Old French estoffer ("to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff"), from Frankish *stopfōn, *stoppōn (“to cram, plug, stuff”), from Proto-Germanic *stuppōnan (“to clog up, block, fill”). Cognate with Old High German stoffōn, stopfōn ("to plug, stuff"), Old English stoppian ("to stop up, close") and Albanian shtyp ("to press, squeeze, stuff"). More at stop.

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Examples

  • Ai fink he stuffffffffed dat udder kitteh inna bawks *stuff stuff stuff* an iz clowzin eet up *pat pat pat* so tu send eet bak tu teh store…. him sez: Nu kitteh?

    come on… take a coke - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • Well, if you don't remember I going to say something about, since the last months and year I feel really unhappy of the type of draws that I made and I begin to delete all the stuff that I have in this account and upload new stuff~ She was one of my old favourites drawing, and I decide to made her again cuz I love her outfit * w*!!!

    Popular in the last 8 hours 2009

  • I felt like throwing the plate against the wall * i break stuff when im angry and i throw stuff* i felt like strangling Bu Tootee and the woman.

    Safat: The KuwaitBlogs' Aggregator 2008

  • It’s not that I didn’t like that post, it’s just that I can get this stuff off of The View, or Tyra Banks etc., whereas I can’t get enough of your other ’stuff’ that I find enjoyable and down to earth any other place but here!

    Herbert’s capacious massive schlong « knitnut.net 2007

  • We started off with nachos (the creamy-lookin stuff is cashew cheez):

    tasty, tasty harmony « paper fruit 2009

  • Still winning all those contests with the Lead Without a Title stuff we threw at you all those years ago?

    The Leader Who Had No Title Robin Sharma 2010

  • "The Palin stuff is not aimed at the Hillary 10, it's at the other 52."

    When Thinking Palin, Don’t Think Hillary Voters - Swampland - TIME.com 2008

  • The attorneys blinked at the use of the word stuff to describe masterworks of the quality of the Degas they were empowered to protect.

    Generous Death Nancy Pickard 1987

  • The attorneys blinked at the use of the word stuff to describe masterworks of the quality of the Degas they were empowered to protect.

    Generous Death Nancy Pickard 1987

  • \ [INFO\] Tagging release with the label stuff-1. 0.0 ...

    Dashboard RSS Feed Paul Gier 2009

Comments

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  • He's got his stuff, for instance

    November 17, 2008