English

A bunch of stuff that was in some Japanese guy's bag

Noun

stuff ‎(usually uncountable, plural stuffs)

1. Miscellaneous items; things; (with possessive) personal effects.

   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.‎

   • 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, The Bat, chapterI:

     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.

2. The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.
   • Sir John Davies (c.1569-1626)

     The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.

3. A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
   • 1857, The National Magazine (volumes 10-11, page 350)

     "And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.

   • 1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety, Harper Perennial 2007, p.147:

     She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.

4. Abstract substance or character.
   • c.1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2, 91–94:

     When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff

   • c.1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4, scene 1, 156–157:

     We are such stuff / As dreams are made on

5. (informal) Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.

   Can I have some of that stuff on my ice-cream sundae?‎

   • 1935, George Goodchild, chapter 3, in Death on the Centre Court:

     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.”

   • 2013 August 3, “Yesterday’s fuel”, in The Economist, volume 408, number 8847:

     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).

6. (slang, informal) Substitution for trivial details.

   I had to do some stuff.‎

7. (slang) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.
   • 1947, William Burroughs, letter, 11 March:

     For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.

8. (obsolete, uncountable) Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
   • Sir John Hayward (c.1564-1627)

     He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.

9. (obsolete) A medicine or mixture; a potion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

10. (obsolete) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash.
    • John Dryden (1631-1700)

      Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.

11. (nautical) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Ham. Nav. Encyc to this entry?)

12. Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

Usage notes

• The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts. In the UK & Commonwealth it designates the cloth from which legal and academic gowns are made, except for the gowns of Queen's/King's/State Counsel, which are (often in contradistinction) made of silk.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stuff ‎(third-person singular simple present stuffs, present participle stuffing, simple past and past participle stuffed)

1. (transitive) To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.

   She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret stuffing recipe.

   • Dryden

     Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.

   • 1922, Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit

     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.

2. (transitive) To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.

   He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.

   • Francis Bacon

     Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together […] and they retain smell and colour.

3. (transitive, used in the passive) To sate.

   I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.

4. (transitive, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To break. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
5. (transitive, vulgar, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To sexually penetrate. (Can we add an example for this sense?)
6. (transitive) To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.

   I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.

7. To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
8. (transitive) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
   • Shakespeare

     I'm stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell.

9. (transitive) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
   • Jonathan Swift

     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.

10. (transitive, dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
11. (transitive, computing) To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.
12. (takes a reflexive pronoun, idiomatic) To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.

Synonyms

• (to sexually penetrate): ****, root, ****
• (eat): fill one's face, feed one's face

Derived terms

• stuffing
• stuff the ballot box
• stuffy

Translations

Derived terms

Interjection

stuff

1. (slang) A filler term used to dismiss explanation.

   "Why are you so sad, Joseph?" "Well...stuff."

Anagrams

• tuffs
• UTFSF