stuff--prophetes.ai

▪ I. stuff, n.¹
    (stʌf)
    Forms: 4–5 stof, 5–6 stoffe, 4–7 stuffe, 5–6 stuf, 5–8 stufe, (6 stoufe), 4– stuff.
    [ME. stoffe, stof, a. OF. estoffe fem., material, furniture, provision (mod.F. étoffe material, stuff, esp. textile material) = Pr., Sp., Pg. estofa, cloth, quality, It. stoffa piece of rich textile fabric. From the OF. word are med.L. estoffa, stoffa, Du. stoffe, stof fem., G. stoff masc., matter, stuff, whence Sw. stoff, Da. stof neut.
    The ultimate etymology is obscure. Diez conjectured that the Rom. stoffa and the related vb. stoffare (stuff v.) are derived from the OHG. *stopfôn (MHG., mod.G. stopfen) to plug with oakum, which (as explained s.v. stop v.) represents a WGer. adoption of med.L. stuppāre to plug, stop up, f. stuppa tow, oakum. This is open to strong objections: the likelihood of a specifically HG. etymon for a Com. Rom. word is questionable, and the original sense of the Rom. verb appears to be, not ‘to plug or stop up’, but ‘to garnish or store with something’. Whether the n. is the source of the verb, or derived from it, is uncertain; the masc. form in It. stoffo, Pg. estofo quilted material, is undoubtedly a verbal noun.]
    I. 1. Equipment, stores, stock. † a. A body of soldiers; a garrison; an auxiliary force, reinforcement. Also stuff of people. Obs.

1375 Barbour Bruce v. 258 Now takis Iames his viage..Vith twa ȝhomen,..That ves a sympill stuff to ta, A land or castell for to vyn! 1412–20 Lydg. Troy-bk. iv. 2119 Whanne he sawe his Grekis gonne faille And wexe feble to stonden in bataille For lak of stuf þat shulde hem recounforte. c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. i. 124 Befor it set wes Cherubin, Þat mai be vnderstandin richt A stuf of angellis blith and bricht. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ii. xiv. (1554) 53 b, Up he rose and gan hymselfe tauance No stuffe about him but sergeauntes riotous. 1442 Roos & Bekynton in B's. Corr. (Rolls) II. 213 Yf any stuf or pouaire of Englissh pouple had be there. c 1470 Henry Wallace vi. 693 The ij captans sone mett thaim at Beggair, With the haill stuff of Roxburch and Berweike.

† b. In ME. poetry, the quilted material worn under the mail, or itself serving in place of armour. In later use: Defensive armour. Obs.

c 1330 R. Brunne Chron. Wace 10031 Vaumbras & rerbras, wyþ coters of stel, Þer-opon an aketon wyþ stof & al sylk [Fr. Hauberc et bon et bel vestu], His cote of armes þer-on. 13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 581, & syþen þe brawden bryne of bryȝt stel ryngez, Vmbe-weued þat wyȝ, vpon wlonk stuffe. a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 2980* Some arays þaim in rynggez some in rawe brenys, Some in stalwart stuffe & some in stele plates. c 1420 Anturs of Arth. xlv, He..Thro the wast of the body wowundet him ille; The squrd styntet for no stuffe, he was so wele stelet. c 1470 Henry Wallace iv. 663 With ire him straik on his gorgeat off steill, The tren⁓sand blaid to persyt euirydeill. Throu plaitt and stuff, mycht nocht agayn it stand. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 981 He..Hakkit throw the hard weid, to the hede hynt; Throw the stuf with the straik..He hewit attanis. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) II. 130 Thir wicht men weildit thair waponis so weill, That euerie straik out-throw thair stuf of steill Thay gart the blude brist out.

† c. The materials, stores, or supplies belonging to an army; munitions of war; more definitely stuffs of war. Obs.

1375 Barbour Bruce xvii. 176 Wittaill thai fand in gret fusioune, And all that fell till stuff of toune. c 1440 Promp. Parv. 481/1 Stuffe, or stuffure, staurum. c 1450 Brut ii. 428 He ordeynyd hym a newe retenewe of men of armys and archeris, with alle maner of othir stuffis that bylongid therto. a 1466 Gregory Chron. in Hist. Coll. Cit. Lond. (Camden) 161 And he toke alle hyr ordynauns of gonnys and alle hyr vytayle, with alle the othyr stoffe that was at the sege, that is to saye, xiiij gonnys,..and ij C pypys of brede and floure,..and othyr stuffe of pavys and tentys. a 1500 Bale's Chron. in Six Town Chron. (1911) 116 Item this yere the duke of Somerset w{supt} a grete power ordenance and stuff moustred at portesmouth diverse tymes. Ibid. 152 W{supt} greet ordenannce of Gonnes and other stuffs of werre.

† d. The baggage of a soldier or an army; later gen. baggage, luggage. Obs.

? a 1400 Morte Arth. 735 Thus they stowe ine the stuffe of fulle steryne knyghtez. 1530 Palsgr. 277/2 Stuffe caryage, aport, seruage... Stuffe that is in a fardell, fardage. 1535 Coverdale 1 Sam. xxx. 24 Like as the porcion is of them that wente downe to the battayll, so shal y⊇ porcion be of them also that abode with the stuffe. 1590 Shakes. Com. Err. iv. iv. 153 Come to the Centaur, fetch our stuffe from thence. a 1625 Fletcher Noble Gent. ii. i, I see my folly, Pack up my stuffe, I will away this morne. 1653 H. Cogan tr. Pinto's Trav. i. 2 There I found a Carvel of Alfama, that was laden with the horses and stuff [Pg. cavallos e fato] of a Lord.

e. Stock or provision of food. Obs. exc. Sc. Cf. 6 c.
More definitely † stuff of victual. † lent(en stuff: fish procured as a provision for Lent.

1436 Hen. VI in Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. Var. Coll. (1907) IV. 199 We..have notable purveyd for the defense and kepynge of hem, as well in sufficiaunce of nombre of men and in stuff of vitaille, artillerie and alle manere abillemens of werre as otherwyse. c 1506 Plumpton Corr. (Camden) 198 And your Lenten stoufe is to bey, & I wote not what to do. 1535 Sc. Acts Jas. V (1814) II. 347/1 Þat Nane forstallaris be fundin byand vittalis fische flesche or vþer stuff or þe samin be presentit to þe mercat..vnder þe pane of presonyng of þare personis. 1580 Tusser Husb. (1878) 126 Take shipping or ride, Lent stuffe to prouide. 1596 Harington Metam. Ajax Prol. B 5 b, Lo stuffe for you good store, To gnaw, chew, bite and eate. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 23 Apr. 1667, Then was the banquetting stuff flung about the roome profusely. 1870 J. Nicholson Idylls o' Hame 113 O' Ne'r⁓day stuffs we're weel laid in, A sonsy cheese, jist like the mune, Wi' crumpy cakes.

f. Provision of corn; in full † stuff of corn; hence corn or grain in any state (see quot. 1825–82). Obs. exc. Sc.

1461–2 Cal. Anc. Rec. Dublin (1889) 311 Wher they fyndyth any maner of stof of corn grosyt, they to arest and take up all such stof. c 1470 Henry Wallace iii. 220 Quhen this was doyne, to thar dyner thai went, Off stuff and wyne. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. I. 6 In all kynde of stuffe, and cattell it abundes. 1635 D. Dickson Sel. Writ. (1845) I. 94 He were an evil-skilled husbandman who should take a whole bing of stuff to be chaff, because there is much chaff in it. 1786 Burns Halloween xv, The Simmer had been cauld an' wat, An' Stuff was unco green. 1825–82 Jamieson, Stuff. It denotes grain in whatever state; whether as growing, cut down, in the barn, or in the mill.

g. Property, esp. movable property, household goods or utensils; furniture; more definitely stuff of money, stuff of household. Obs. exc. in household-stuff arch.

1438 E.E. Wills (1882) 111 Item to my wyf, all my stuff beyng at the Fasterne. 1439 Ibid. 126 All his other godes and stuffes meveable that he leveth vnto hem. c 1442–55 Dk. Buckingham in Paston Lett. I. 61 In gode faith, brother,..I have but easy stuffe of money withinne me,..so that I may not plese youre seid gode brotherhode. 1464 Inv. in Turner's Dom. Archit. (1859) III. iv. 113 A grete red standerd full of stuff, locked with 2 lockes. c 1490 Caxton Rule St. Benet 136 Suche stuff that he hath not yeuen before to folke þat ben poore or other wyse, openly shall he thenne yeue to the monestary. 1501 Bury Wills (Camden) 84, I bequethe to Margarett my wyff all my stuff of hous⁓hold. 1538 in Archæologia XLIII. 210 Certeyne guddes or stuffe appertaynyng to the seid Monastery remayneth unsolde. 1596 H. Clapham Briefe Bible i. 65 Joshuah giving in charge that no man take any execrable stuffe of Iericho. 1621 Burton Anat. Mel. ii. iii. iii. 399 A poore man..eates his meat in wooden spoones, wooden platters, earthen Vessels, and such homely stuffe. 1635–56 Cowley Davideis iii. 220 Some lead the groaning waggons, loaded high, With stuff, on top of which the Maidens ly. 1646 Bury Wills (Camden) 193 She shall not..haue the vse of any of the goods, stuffe of houshold, chattells, personall estate, or thinges by me herein given to her.

† h. The furnishing proper to a place or thing; appurtenances, apparatus. Obs.

1406 Hoccleve La Male Regle 349 My thank is qweynt, my purs his stuf hath lore. 1427–9 Wills & Inv. N.C. (Surtees) II. 75 And I wyl yat y⊇ stuffe of alle myn howses of offices as kychyn panetre and buttre..remayne to my son. 1523–34 Fitzherb. Husb. (1882) 14 A carte made of asshe,..and lyke stuffe to it as is to a wayne. 1530 Palsgr. 277/2 Stuffe for a bedde, acoustrement de lit. 1538 Elyot Dict., Choragium, stuffe, proprely wherwith that place is adorned, where as shall be enterludes or disguysynges. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 87 Oh mercie God, what masking stuffe is heere? What's this? a sleeue? 1679–88 Secr. Serv. Money Chas. & Jas. (Camden) 160 To Francis Duddell..for sev^ll provisions for church stuff for the chappel at Dublin, 267li. 4s. 10d. 1688 Wood Life 26 Nov. (O.H.S.) III. 285 Common report that lord Delamere, who was about Northampton burning all popish chapel stuffs,..would be at Oxon next day.

† i. Cookery. Materials for filling a pie or for stuffing. Obs.

c 1420 Liber Cocorum (1862) 51 For a pye... Þy stuffe of fressh befe mynse þou schalle..Þen lay þy capon in coffyn fyne. c 1450 Two Cookery Bks. ii. 76 Make faire rownde cofyns,..fil hem full of the stuffe, and sette hem ayen in the oven. 1533 J. Heywood Johan A iij, We made a pye..The preest payde for the stuffe and the makyng. 1591 A. W. Bk. Cookrye 7 Then mingle all your stuf togither, and put it in your Rabets belly. 1598 Epulario I j, Take Marchpane stuffe..prepare the paste..then fill it with the stuffe.

j. Stock-in-trade. Obs. exc. north.

1560 J. Daus tr. Sleidane's Comm. 118 b, There is not so lytle a corner any where, that they [sc. merchants] have not fylled full of theyr stuffe. 1630 Bp. Hall Occas. Medit. xxx. (1633) 75 Each [street seller] tels what he hath,..and yet (God wot) it is but poore stuffe that they set out, with so much ostentation. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss. s.v., ‘He's a deal o' stuff on hand, noo’, a very large stock in trade.

II. That of which something is or may be made; material.
2. a. Material to work with or upon; substance to be wrought, matter of composition.

c 1440 Pallad. on Husb. i. 392 Of suche a stufe as esy is to fynde Is best..to bilde. 1474 Caxton Chesse iii. v. (1883) 126 They that ben acustomed to make oynements they ought to make hyt proprely of true stuf and of good odoure. 1522 Extracts Burgh Rec. Stirling (1887) 17 And that tha [sc. the candles] be gud and sufficient stoufe. 1524 Ibid. 19 Johen Allan, talyour, was in amerciament for the occupyin of the furruris in furring of ane goune with new stoufe. 1585 Higins Junius' Nomencl. 347/2 Fistula,..a pipe: a flute, whether it be of reede or other stuffe. 1594 Hooker Eccl. Pol. i. iii. §3 Let Phidias haue rude & obstinate stuffe to carue,..his worke will lacke that bewtie which otherwise in fitter matter it might haue had. 1621 Donne Serm. xv. (1640) 147 In all the Potters house, is there one vessell made of better stuffe then clay? 1693 Evelyn De la Quint. Gard., Cult. Orange Trees 9 A Shovel-full of Stuff [F. matière] is thrown from each of the two or three separated Heaps [of ingredients for a compost]. 1764 Burn Poor Laws 217 Hemp, wool, flax, or other stuff wrought, shall be sold..either at some market or other place.

b. collect. Materials or requisites for a piece of work; esp. building materials.

c 1400 Destr. Troy 283 Now ordant was althing [sc. for the building of a ship] onestly þere, And abundantly broght þat hom bild might, With all stuff for þe stremes. 1442 Rolls of Parlt. V. 44/1 The makers of the seid new Brigge, to have free entry and issue, with their Tymbre, cariage, and othir stuffe. 1473–4 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 68 For a leueray colare..gevin to him..price of the colare, stuf and werkmanschip, xj li. viij s. iiij d. 1482 in Eng. Hist. Rev. (1910) XXV. 122 We fyndyng allemaner of stoffe as Bordes, Couerynges, Curreys, hookes, or Claspes, glewe, and flowre for paaste [for binding the books]. c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon vi. 149 Whan all his stuff was redy, he made theym to buylde there a strong castell. c 1550 in Turner's Dom. Archit. (1859) III. iii. 79 V{supc}. marc or more to pay wekely pouer workemen, laborers stuff and cariage. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. Pref. (Arb.) 21 A small cotage, poore for the stuffe, and rude for the workemanship. 1630 R. N. Camden's Eliz. ii. 106 The Queene by Proclamation prohibited any new dwelling houses to be built,..vpon paine of imprisonment, and losse of the stuffe brought for the building. 1896 P. J. Davies Pract. Plumbing II. 801 Stuff, in plumbing, the lead and materials, such as is the stuff on the job.

† c. A manufactured material. Cf. sense 5. Obs.

1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions i. v. 52 Thei did weare..shoes of a certeine kinde of russhes, named Papyrus, whiche after became stuffe, to geue name to our paper. a 1626 Bacon New Atlantis 38 Wee haue also diuerse Mechanicall Arts, which you haue not; And Stuffes made by them; As Papers, Linnen, Silks, Tissues; dainty Works of Feathers of wonderfull Lustre; excellent Dies, and many others.

3. transf. and fig. a. The substance or ‘material’ (whether corporeal or incorporeal) of which a thing is formed or consists, or out of which a thing may be fashioned.

1587 Golding De Mornay (1592) 127 God for the creating of the world needed neither stuffe nor newe advisement. 1604 Shakes. Oth. i. ii. 2 Yet do I hold it very stuffe o' th' conscience To do no contriu'd Murder. 1610 ― Temp. iv. i. 156 We are such stuffe As dreames are made on. 1611 ― Cymb. v. iv. 49. 1612 Two Noble K. iii. i. 49 Not finding in The circuit of my breast any grosse stuffe To forme me like your blazon. 1621 Donne Serm. xv. (1640) 144 As soone as my soule enters into Heaven, I shall be able to say to the Angels, I am of the same stuffe as you, spirit, and spirit. 1648 Bp. Hall Breath. Devout Soul xlviii. 81 When I look back upon the stuffe whereof it [my body] is made, no better then that I tread upon..I have much adoe to hold good terms with so unequall a partner. 1709 T. Robinson Vind. Mosaick Syst. 14 The Platonick Hypothesis..is to make God an Impotent Cause, not able to make this World with⁓out Matter and Stuff to work on. 1785 Burke Sp. Nabob Arcot's Debts Wks. 1792 II. 502 The debt of the company from the rajah of Tanjore, is just of the same stuff with that of the nabob of Arcot. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad xxxii, From far..The stuff of life to knit me Blew hither: here am I. 1900 H. Macpherson Herbert Spencer v. 68 Now, in tracing the Universe, science can get no further back than the nebula, or world-stuff. 1914 A. F. Giles Rom. Civiliz. i. 7 We have to realize that human nature, which is the stuff of history, is much the same in all ages.

b. What a person is ‘made of’; one's capabilities or inward character. Also, solid qualities of intellect or character; capacity for achievement or endurance; the ‘makings’ of future excellence.

1557 Edgeworth Serm. 305 b, He is a proud man he swelleth in the flesh and is not ful, but as a thing blowen vp and readie to burst, and yet is there no sure and permanent stuffe within him. 1597 Morley Introd. Mus. 120 He is a proper man, but he is no descanter..there is no stuffe in him. 1601 Shakes. Jul. C. iii. ii. 97 When that the poore haue cry'de, Cæsar hath wept: Ambition should be made of sterner stuffe. 1613 ― Hen. VIII, i. i. 58 Surely Sir, There's in him stuffe, that put's him to these ends. 1785 Cowper Task iv. 636 Unapt to learn, and form'd of stubborn stuff, He yet by slow degrees puts off himself. 1792 R. Cumberland Calvary v. 304 Is thy frail memory of that slippery stuff That a friend's sorrow washes out all trace Of a friend's features? 1820 Byron Morg. Mag. xxiv, For late there have appear'd three giants rough; What nation or what kingdom bore the batch I know not, but they are all of savage stuff. 1822 Hazlitt Table-T. Ser. ii. ix. 212 There is stuff in him, and it is of the right practicable sort. 1853 Lytton My Novel x. xxiv, Yet Frank Hazeldean has stuff in him—a good heart, and strict honour. 1858 Hawthorne Fr. & It. Note-Bks. I. 224 He was not naturally of the stuff that martyrs are made of. 1862 Baily's Mag. May 311 He [an oarsman] looks remarkably well, and is made of stuff to stand training. Ibid. Dec. 313 There is some good bowling stuff in him [sc. a cricketer]. 1879 Times 14 June 12/1 The Marquis..has some of the stuff of a man in him, in spite of his self-indulgence and his follies.

c. Predicatively, with epithet, of a person or a horse. Esp. in phr. bit of stuff: now chiefly in slang use, with or without epithet, of a woman or girl. Cf. bit n.² 4 f, h.

1553 Respublica i. iv. 376 Els will some of youe make good hanging stuff one daie. 1808 Jamieson s.v., It is said of one, who will not yield in reasoning, or in fighting, ‘He is good stuff, or, a piece of good stuff’. 1828 Subaltern's Log Bk. II. 164, I entered the house in great spirits, fancying myself, to make use of a slang phrase, a very good bit of stuff. 1830 Marryat King's Own iv, He is real stuff—never winced. 1858 Carlyle Fredk. Gt. ii. vii. (1872) I. 95 Rudolf..proved an excellent bit of stuff for a Kaiser. 1861 G. J. Whyte-Melville Market Harb. i, ‘Capital bit of stuff,’ he repeats, dangling his feet out of the stirrups; ‘as game as a pebble, and as neat as a pink.’ 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting vi. 175 He was as good a bit of stuff as ever was put together. 1909 in J. R. Ware Passing Eng. 31/1 He waited for a bit of stuff near the stage door of the Comedy Theatre. He was an elderly cove and he had great patience. 1971 B. W. Aldiss Soldier Erect 10 The infantry myth that one spent one's whole leave yanking it up some willing bit of stuff in a pub yard.

d. Material for literary elaboration; the matter or substance of a work, as distinguished from the form. Now rare. † in stuff: as regards the matter or substance.

c 1450 J. Capgrave St. Aug. xlv. 60 Þis glorious doctour whom all cristen men ar bounde to do worchip, most specialy clerkys..þat haue grete stuf oute of his bokes to her lernyng. a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 129 They busie not them selues with forme of buildyng: They do not declare, this stuffe is thus framed by Demosthenes, and thus and thus by Tullie. 1607 Shakes. Timon v. i. 87 And for thy fiction, Why thy Verse swels with stuffe so fine and smooth, That thou art euen Naturall in thine Art. 1619 in Eng. & Germ. (Camden) 192 The inclosed writing..being, as by perusall you will find, in stuffe the very same with that I had at Saltzburg. 1675 Marvell Corr. Wks. (Grosart) II. 473 Having scarce stuffe enough for a letter to the Bench, I content myself with acquainting you [etc.]. 1684 Roscommon Ess. Transl. Verse 44 Degrading Prose explains his meaning ill, And shews the Stuff, but not the Workman's skill. 1855 Motley Dutch Rep. iii. ix. II. 458 This great event [the siege of Harlem] constituted..the principal stuff in Netherland history, up to the middle of the year 1573.

4. In various operative trades, applied spec. to the kind of material used in the trade. a. Carpentry and Joinery: Timber.
clear, free stuff: timber free from imperfections. quarter stuff: see quarter n. 31. thick stuff: see quot. 1711.

1544 Betham Precepts War ii. lv. L iv, Bycause stuffe doth somtyme want to make suche [wooden] brydges. 1678 Moxon Mech. Exerc. vi. 113 The Wood that Joyners work upon they call in general Stuff. 1711 W. Sutherland Shipbuild. Assist. 48 Plank and thick Stuff for Ship-work. Ibid. 165 Thick-stuff; all Plank (as it may be termed) which is thicker than 4 Inches. 1799 Hull Advertiser 15 June 2/2 Timber. For sale... A variety of stuff suitable for camp buildings. 1812–16 J. Smith Panorama Sci. & Art I. 118 The shoulder [of the square] is pressed against the edge of a rectangular piece of stuff, and a line drawn close to the blade. 1833 Loudon Encycl. Archit. §83 The whole to be framed in a workmanlike manner, with the stuff (pieces of timber) sawed square of the several scantlings. 1879 Cassell's Techn. Educ. IV. 130/1 Panel stuff should be treated in a similar manner. 1883 Encycl. Brit. XVI. 453/2 The timbers are usually of 12-inch stuff square-hewn or sawn.

b. The material of which a beaver-hat is made. Cf. stuff hat (11 c).

1799 Repert. Arts & Manuf. X. 275 [Hat making.] The purpose of fulling being to form a dense compact stuff with hair.

c. Paper-making. (See quots.)

1745 De Coetlogon Hist. Arts & Sci. II. 796/2 In these Mortars, the Rags being beaten.., they take them out with little Iron hooped Pails... This makes what they call the first Stuff... After this, the Stuff is again put into clean Mortars. 1766 Half-stuff [see half- 11 n]. 1840 Penny Cycl. XVII. 208/2 The pulp, or stuff, as it is technically called, is now ready to be made into paper. 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Stuff, paper-stock, ground ready for use. When half ground it is known as half-stuff.

d. Mining. Material of rock, earth, or clay containing ore, metal, or precious stones.

1851 S. Rutter Hints to Gold Hunters 12 The principal use of the washpan is in rewashing the partially washed stuff taken from the rocker. 1853 C. R. Read Austral. Gold Fields 15 Anxious, at all events, to have a look at the real stuff, I accompanied one down to see him wash out his tin dish. 1877 Raymond Statist. Mines & Mining 19 Fragments of a crimson-colored rock were found by the miners, intermixed with the gold⁓dust... This ‘red stuff,’ so called, bothered the honest diggers not a little, interfering with their operations much after the manner of the celebrated ‘blue stuff’—the rich sulphurets of silver. 1885 Rider Haggard K. Solomon's Mines xvi, I pointed to a series of worn flat slabs of stone..‘if those are not tables once used to wash the {oqq}stuff{cqq}, I'm a Dutchman.’ 1887 J. A. Phillips & Bauerman Elem. Metall. (ed. 2) 185 The [iron] ore remains about ten minutes in the drum, or about 10 tons of stuff are washed per hour.

5. a. Material for making garments; woven material of any kind.

1462 Mann. & Househ. Exp. (Roxb.) 150 Item, delyvaryd to Willyam off Wardrope ffor stoffe ffor my lordys doblett, xx.d. 1473 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 73 Veluous to purfel a govne to my Lady of blac satyne figory, of the Kingis awin stufe. 1551 Robinson tr. More's Utopia ii. ix. (1895) 294 The priest is clothed in chaungeable coloures, whiche in workemanshyp be excellent, but in stuffe [L. materia] not verye pretious. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iii. 119 Gris. I gaue him the stuffe. Tail. But how did you desire it should be made? 1617 Moryson Itin. i. 208 My selfe and my brother bought each of us a long coat of as course stuffe as we could find. 1713 Berkeley Ess. in Guardian v. Wks. 1871 III. 161 My couches, beds, and window-curtains are of Irish stuff. 1801 Strutt Sports & Past. i. ii. 34 Certain quantities of stuff for the purpose of making ‘stalking coats, and stalking hose’. 1838 James Robber i, A coarse sort of stuff used by the common people.

b. In particularized sense: A kind of stuff; a textile fabric.

1604 E. G[rimstone] D'Acosta's Hist. Ind. iv. xli. 320 The Indians make stuffs of this wooll wherewith they clothe themselves. 1625 in Foster Eng. Factories India (1909) III. 62 ‘Neccanies, semeanes, dimittes, stuffs, gumlack, blood⁓stones, and the rest’ will be sent as ordered. a 1627 Middleton Anything for Quiet Life ii. ii. (1662) D 1, But if you'd have a Petticoat for your Lady, here's a stuff. 1660 F. Brooke tr. Le Blanc's Trav. 92 They make stuffes of the bark of a tree, to cover their nakednesse. 1756 Nugent Gr. Tour, Germany II. 229 Leipsic has considerable manufactures of its own, as in stuffs. 1791 W. Hamilton Berthollet's Dyeing I. Introd. 2 The stuffs..were immersed in vats, where they received various colours. 1838 Lytton Leila i. iv, The walls were covered with the stuffs of the East. 1857 Ruskin Pol. Econ. Art i. 10 Applying your labour rationally;..not..putting fine embroidery on a stuff that will not wear.

fig. 1601 Shakes. Twel. N. ii. iii. 53 Youths a stuffe will not endure.

c. spec. A woollen fabric (see quot. 1882).

c 1643 [cf. stuff suit 11 a]. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 264 ¶1 He dresses himself according to the Season in Cloth or in Stuff. 1735 Dyche & Pardon Dict., Stuff, in Weaving, is any Sort of Commodity made of Woollen Thread, &c. but in a particular Manner those thin light ones that Women make or line their Gowns of or with. 1882 Caulfeild & Saward Dict. Needlework 465 Stuffs. This term..may be applied to any woven textile,..but it more especially denotes those of worsted, made of long or ‘combing wool’... Stuffs are distinguished from other woollen cloths by the absence of any nap or pile. 1896 C. K. Paul tr. Huysman's En Route ii. vii. 276 The Trappist is buried without a coffin, in his robe of stuff.

d. As the material for the gown worn by a junior counsel. Hence rarely, A ‘stuff-gownsman’, i.e. a junior counsel, as distinguished from a ‘silk’ (see silk n. 3 d).
For some years c 1900 ‘Silk and Stuff’ was the heading of the column devoted to bar news in the Pall Mall Gazette.

1889 A. Birrell Sir F. Lockwood v. 82 In 1882 Lockwood whilst still in stuff defended..with great success, a woman who [etc.]. 1892 Pall Mall Gaz. 12 Oct. 6/1 He was appointed to the bench when he was a ‘stuff’ merely on the ground of professional merit.

III. Matter of an unspecified kind.
6. a. The general designation for solid, liquid, or (rarely) gaseous matter of any kind: used indefinitely instead of the specific designation, or where no specific designation exists. Often applied to a preparation or composition used for some special purpose.

1580–1 Act 23 Eliz. c. 9 Preamb., A certeyne kinde of Ware or Stuffe called Logwood. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 165 They..delight to have their boots and shoos shine with blacking stuffe. 1617 Shuttleworths' Acc. (Chetham Soc.) 223 For stuffe to kille myce at Gawthropp, ij^s. 1681 Langford Fruit-trees 108 Some thin stuff out of a House of Office..hath been often used with good success. 1714 Tyldesley Diary (1873) 150 Gave Mrs. 6d. to by stufe ffor her tyeth. 1769 Falconer Dict. Marine (1780), Stuff, any composition, or melted mass, used to smear or daub the masts, sides, or bottom of a ship. 1820 Shelley Oedipus Tyr. ii. i. 123, I vote..that Purganax rub a little of that stuff Upon his face. 1882 W. Huggins in 19th Cent. Aug. 275 We have found that one part of the cometary stuff is in the condition of gas. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 819 The kidneys gradually finding greater and greater difficulty in getting out the toxic stuff.

¶ Although the Eng. word is not, like Ger. stoff, used for ‘matter’ in the scientific sense (as opposed to ‘spirit’ or to ‘force’ or ‘energy’), it sometimes occurs in nonce-uses intended to illustrate the notion expressed by matter in this application.

1875 Stewart & Tait Unseen Univ. iii. §93. 70 The conviction that there is something besides matter or stuff in the physical universe.

b. Applied to medicine, esp. liquid mixtures. More definitely doctor's stuff (see doctor n. 13). Now only colloq. or with disparaging implication.

1611 Shakes. Cymb. v. v. 255, I..did compound for her A certaine stuffe, which being tane, would cease The present powre of life. 1636 in Trans. Essex Archæol. Soc. (1863) II. 213 Paid Mr. Stammer for a glasse of stuff sent to the sick folkes, 1s. 0d. 1779 Warner in Jesse Selwyn & Contemp. (1844) IV. 298 Your very kind letter..did me more good, I think, than any of my doctor's stuff. 1819 Moore Tom Crib's Mem. 17 Sandy tipp'd him a dose of that kind, that, when taken, It is n't the stuff, but the patient that's shaken. 1847 Lever Knt. Gwynne xvii, The old doctor..tore a leaf out of his pocket-book to order me some stuff for the cough.

c. Applied to articles of food or drink. good stuff, the stuff: colloq. whisky.
See also kitchen-stuff, sweet-stuff (sweet a. C. 1).

1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, ii. iv. 69 There's a whole Marchants Venture of Burdeux-Stuffe in him. 1678 in Jrnl. Friends' Hist. Soc. (1912) IX. 193 Who being gone from the fathers house where ther is Liueing bread enough, his owne Company are glad of his dry huskey stufe. 1706 E. Ward Wooden World Diss. (1708) 57 Wretched gripe-gut Stuff. 1712 Arbuthnot John Bull iii. vi. 23 My Friend Nic and I, not being used to such heady Stuff [champagne], got bloody Drunk. 1825 T. C. Croker Fairy Leg. Irel. xxxii. (1859) 269 Dropping the glass, and it full of the stuff too, I bolted out of the door. 1854 Surtees Handley Cr. iv. (1901) I. 30 A farmer and brewer; and making pretty good stuff, ‘Dobbs's Ale’. 1861 Meredith Evan Harrington xi, The guests had arrived at that stage when to reach the arm, or arrange the person, for a sip of good stuff, causes moral debates. 1886 D. C. Murray Aunt Rachel II. i. 12 Tek a shillin' and get a drop o' good stuff wi' it, an' warm up that old gizzard o' thine. 1895 B. Stoker Watter's Mou' i. 5 Despite of all vigilance, a considerable amount of ‘stuff’ finds its way to the consumers without the formality of the Custom House. 1896 A. E. Housman Shropshire Lad lxii, Ale, man, ale's the stuff to drink For fellows whom it hurts to think.

d. In certain operative trades, applied spec. to some particular composition or preparation used in the work. (a) Plastering. (See quot. 1812.) (b) Baking. (See quot. 1820.) (c) Leather-manuf. (See quot. 1875): = stuffing.
red stuff (see red a. 19). touching stuff (see touching vbl. n. 4). white stuff, a gilders' composition of size and whiting, used to form a surface over wood to be gilded. (Cent. Dict. 1891.)

(a) 1812 P. Nicholson Mech. Exerc. 307 Fine Stuff is made of lime slacked and sifted through a fine sieve, and mixed with a due quantity of hair, and sometimes a small quantity of fine sand. Fine stuff is used in common ceilings and walls, set for paper or colour. Ibid. 309 Lime and Hair, is a mixture of lime and hair used in first coating and floating. It is otherwise denominated coarse stuff.

(b) 1820 Blackw. Mag. III. 546 Other individuals furnish the baker with alum mixed up with salt, under the obscure denomination of stuff. 1843 Pereira Food & Diet 311 Notwithstanding that the law prohibits, under a penalty, the use of alum by bakers, it is very frequently employed under the name of ‘stuff’.

(c) 1875 Knight Dict. Mech., Stuff (Leather) a composition of fish-oil and tallow for filling the pores of leather. Dubbing. 1897 C. T. Davis Manuf. Leather xv. (ed. 2) 216 It must always be remembered that stale goods will not carry the stuff as well as fresh ones.

e. Cultivated produce of a garden or farm; natural produce of land.

a 1687– [see garden-stuff]. 1813 T. Rudge Agric. Glouc. 246 In some coppices, the small stuff, called drift-wood, is sold..as high as 5s. the square perch. 1868 Atkinson Cleveland Gloss., ‘There's a vast o' stuff on t' land, surely’; growth or produce. 1896 P. A. Graham Red Scaur iii. 34 His judgment of live-stock was infallible, and he seldom let any real good stuff go past. 1901 J. H. Harris Luck of Wheal Veor xi. 162 The ducks, chickens, and goslings, and all the young stuff shaping ‘keenly’ for future sale.

f. In commercial and industrial use, often applied spec. to the particular commodity dealt in or produced.

1708 J. C. Compl. Collier (1845) 12 By sight of the Stuff taken out of the Wimble, or Scoop, you plainly discover of what Kind it is. 1881 Good Words 843/2 The iron rope..which..brought up the tub..with the ‘stuff’ as it was dug out. 1883 Gresley Gloss. Coal-mining 245 Stuff, coals and slack, the produce of the mine. 1912 World 7 May 700/1 Most of the nitrate companies..are making a better showing in their reports. At anything over 7s. 3d. per quintal the stuff pays handsomely. 1913 Standard 14 July 3/1 British steel is affected by the cheap offers of foreign stuff.

g. Narcotics, ‘dope’. Phr. on the stuff, addicted to drugs, on drugs. slang (orig. U.S.).

1929 Amer. Speech IV. 345 Stuff, dope. 1934 [see main-line v.]. 1935 A. J. Pollock Underworld Speaks 84/1 On the stuff, addicted to dope. 1952 Sunday Times 3 Feb. 5/4 There has lately been a lot of research into the sale of narcotics (or ‘junk’ or ‘stuff’) and their effects on addicts. 1959 ‘F. Newton’ Jazz Scene 292 Jive talk..contains all the fancy-dress devices of private languages..the never-ending substitution of new passwords into the group for new codes..the use of neutral and general words for highly specific things (e.g. on the stuff, or simply on for drug addiction). 1965 New Statesman 20 Aug. 248/3 Addicts have a secret language, which changes like a code. The commonest current name for heroin is ‘stuff’. 1973 L. Hellman Pentimento 290 ‘His room-mate's on the stuff.’ This then new way of saying dope..was no surprise. Years before she had told me her son was on the stuff. 1976 H. Ferguson Confessions Long Distance Acid Head 65 ‘Yes. You were the bloke who got done for someone else's stuff..weren't you?’ It was a junkie whom I had met in Ashford.

7. transf. and fig. in non-physical senses. a. Literary or artistic matter; compositions, productions. Now rare exc. with disparaging implication (cf. 8), and colloq. among journalists and professional authors = ‘copy’.

1542 Udall Erasm. Apoph. 12 Whiche booke perused, Euripides asked, what he thought of it. By Iuppiter (saied Socrates) that, that I haue been hable to vnderstand me thynketh to be ioyly good stuffe. 1562 Turner Herbal ii. 70 He pretendeth as thoughe he neuer saw Dioscorides of whom he hath conueyed so much learned stuf in his omnigatherum. a 1586 Sidney Astroph. & Stella lvi, But now that I, alas, doe want her sight, What, dost thou thinke that I can euer take In thy cold stuffe a flegmatike delight? a 1668 R. Lassels Voy. Italy ii. (1698) 76, I saw upon the wall some old painting,..pitiful stuff. 1693 Dryden Persius i. Argt. (1697) 400 To decry the Poetry then in Fashion; and the Impudence of those, who were endeavouring to pass their Stuff upon the World. 1711 Swift Jrnl. to Stella 3 Oct., I..then went in to the music-meeting..: but was weary in half an hour of their fine stuff, and stole out so privately that everybody saw me. 1883 F. M. Crawford Dr. Claudius i, He had been reading serious stuff. 1898 Scribner's Mag. May 580 Some of the younger crowd could tell which was Linton's stuff, and what kind of a story he was best at. 1915 Daily News 24 Apr. 4 This does not mean that they had finished writing their ‘stuff’ (to use an expressive technical phrase) for the daily papers.

† b. Matter of thought. Obs.

1602 Shakes. Ham. ii. ii. 324 Ham... Man delights not me; no, nor Woman neither; though by your smiling you seeme to say so. Rosin. My Lord, there was no stuffe in my thoughts.

c. Applied to a person: chiefly with qualifying word. See also hot stuff a.

1588 Shakes. L.L.L. iv. iii. 276 Kin. No Diuell will fright thee then so much as shee. Duma. I neuer knew man hold vile stuffe so deere. 1604 Middleton Witch iv. ii. (1778) 82 She goes here by the name on's wife: good stuff! 1607 ― Michaelmas Term iii. i. E 4, Sho. How now? what peece of stuffe comes heere? a 1641 Bp. R. Montagu Acts & Mon. (1642) 250 He was so besotted..upon that now broken stuffe, and Crone in yeares, the cast beauty of that woman [Cleopatra].

d. Fighting material. colloq.

1883 Manch. Exam. 24 Nov. 5/1 The army of Ibrahim included a good deal of tougher stuff than the ordinary fellah of Egypt. 1894 Outing Sept. 445/1 Good! that big stuff can't box a little bit.

e. to do one's stuff: to do what is required or expected of one; to perform one's role. colloq.
Quot. 1663 may belong to another sense.

1663 G. Fox Jrnl. (1694) I. 266 A while after, when the priest had done his stuff, they came to the friends again.

1922 Radio News (U.S.) IV. 854/1 (caption) Take a look at S. M. Brown, Chief on the Mauretania, ‘doing his stuff’ in the saloon. 1930 T. E. Lawrence Lett. (1938) 677 That portable was good at Miranshah. I hope yours is doing its stuff. 1933 Bulletin (Sydney) 19 Apr. 29/4 Australia will be represented in this event by Alan Bruce, who has been doing his stuff in London. 1946 F. Sargeson That Summer 144 If you knew how to do your stuff you never could tell but what it mightn't end up in a date. 1959 [see anti-aircraft a.]. 1967 G. F. Fiennes I tried to run a Railway vi. 70, I go when I can for the fun of hearing Richard doing his stuff. 1972 Wodehouse Pearls, Girls, & Monty Bodkin ii. 27 The Bishop and assistant clergy and the bridesmaids shall be encouraged to line up and do their stuff. 1976 Daily Times (Lagos) 27 Aug. 30/2 Ghana's Johnny Francois and a few others did their stuff abroad and, gradually, the panel took root.

f. that's the stuff (to give them or to give the troops): that is what is particularly appropriate to the situation, that is what is required.

1923 ‘Bartimeus’ Seaways vii. 98 George Grayson and his Flock of Fascinating Flappers presents a screaming farce: The Giddy Governess! That's the stuff to give the troops! 1927 Daily Express 13 Oct. 12 That, if one may be pardoned the colloquialism, was the stuff to give them. 1942 H. C. Bailey Dead Man's Shoes xiv. 63 ‘A new married man with a lovely wife spends half the night with a police inspector he meets by chance! That's not the stuff to give the troops.’.. ‘No, it don't sound natural.’ 1943 J. B. Priestley Daylight on Saturday vii. 46 ‘We're always glad to have suggestions from anybody.’ ‘That's the stuff,’ said Mr. Ogmore. 1977 P. D. James Death of Expert Witness ii. i. 53 Inspector Blakelock..was always ready for his tea... ‘That's the stuff to give the troops,’ he would invariably say.

g. to know one's stuff : to be experienced or knowledgeable in one's subject, profession, etc. colloq.

1927 Amer. Speech II. 277 Know your onions or know your stuff, have grasp of your subjects. 1935 Swing Music June 111/1 The Little Man of the Rhythm Clubs did himself proud in this test paper. He knows his stuff. 1938 G. Greene Brighton Rock iii. i. 108 ‘This doctor,’ she says, ‘he knows his stuff?’ 1945 R. A. Knox God & Atom x. 132 All I have written could have been written very much better by someone who, in an expressive modern phrase, knew his stuff. 1952 J. Steinbeck East of Eden xxxiii. 46 It's a lulu. Kate sure knows her stuff. 1967 M. Argyle Psychol. Interpersonal Behaviour ix. 166 His [sc. the supervisor's] influence will be accepted more readily if it is believed that he really knows his stuff. 1973 A. Christie Postern of Fate iii. vii. 174 ‘He gave me a lot of knowledge about planting things.’ ‘Yes, he knew his stuff, as you might say.’

8. What is worthless; rubbish. (Orig. a contextual use of sense 7, with disparaging epithet or other indication of aversion.) a. gen.

a 1668 R. Lassels Voy. Italy ii. (1670) 404 Here also they have every night in summer, a world of Montibanks, Ciarlatani, and such stuff. 1706 M. Henry Expos. Gen. xlv. 20 What they had in Canaan he reckoned but stuff..the best of its [the world's] Enjoyments are but stuff, but lumber. 1720 Hearne Collect. (O.H.S.) VII. 120 Dr. Charlett..went over..to get some MSS. (I am told, very sorry ones) for the Publ. Library... The Persons that told me observ'd that a Library may soon be filled with such stuff. 1810 Sporting Mag. XXXVI. 187 A red curtain, a Grecian couch, or some such fashionable stuff. 1883 Daily News 14 Feb. 5/7 The brass dishes are poor stuff.

b. Worthless ideas, discourse, or writing; nonsense, rubbish. Often coupled with nonsense (chiefly stuff and nonsense, † nonsense and stuff). Frequently in interjectional use.

1579 Gosson Sch. Abuse (Arb.) 66 Iuno crieth out in Seneca,..Lets dwel in earth, for heauen is full of whores. What stuffe is this? wantons in heauen? 1606 Shakes. Tr. & Cr. i. iii. 161 At this fusty stuffe, The large Achilles..laughes out a lowd applause. 1691–8 Norris Pract. Disc. IV. 415 Would not this be mere Stuff, wretched Trifling,..and as much to the Purpose as if he had said just Nothing? 1701 Farquhar Sir H. Wildair iv. ii, Golden Pleasures! Golden Fiddlesticks.—What d'ye tell me of your canting Stuff? Ibid., Stuff! stuff! stuff!—I won't believe a Word on't. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones vii. vi, Pooh, all stuff and nonsense. I tell thee, she shall ha' thee to-morrow. 1770 Foote Lame Lover i. 10 Pshaw! nonsense and stuff.—The eye! 1778 Johnson in Boswell (1904) II. 185 It is sad stuff, Sir, miserably written, as books in general then were. 1833 Coleridge Table-t. 28 Aug., Your art diplomatic is stuff:—no truly great man would negociate now upon any such shallow principles. 1851–61 Mayhew Lond. Labour II. 175/2 It's all stuff and nonsense, all this talk about dust⁓yards being unhealthy. 1852 Thackeray Esmond i. vi, ‘Stuff! we must see Lady Castlewood,’ says the lawyer, pushing by. 1860 C. M. Yonge Hopes & Fears I. 181 ‘Only because I am not come out.’ ‘Stuff about coming out! I don't like my girls to be shy and backward.’ 1887 T. E. Brown Lett. (1900) I. 125 Poor G. Sand! I am reading her Amours de l'Âge d'Or. Woe is me! what awful stuff! 1890 ‘R. Boldrewood’ Col. Reformer xxiv, ‘Stuff!’ said Miss Augusta.

† c. Indecent matter. Obs.

1749 Fielding Tom Jones xii. v, A grave matron told the master [of a puppet-show] she would bring her two daughters the next night, as he did not show any stuff.

d. phr. ― and stuff, and such-like useless or uninteresting matters. colloq.

? 1697 J. Lewis Mem. Dk. Glocester (1789) 66 She turned to me and said, ‘Lewis, I find you pretend to give the Duke notions of the mathematics, and stuff.’ 1729 Swift Grand Question debated 159 Your Noveds, and Blutraks, and Omurs and Stuff, By G―, they don't signify this Pinch of Snuff. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 145 When they talk'd of their Raphaels, Corregios, and stuff. 1852 Thackeray Esmond iii. iv, And as for you, you want a woman..to sit at your feet, and cry, ‘O caro! O bravo!’ whilst you read your Shakespeares and Miltons and stuff.

e. gen. Used loosely to denote any collection of things about which one is not able or willing to particularize (a weakened application of senses 6, 7); material, matter, business. colloq.

1922 [see sense 7 e above]. 1949 ‘G. Orwell’ 1984 ii. ii. 123 You thought I was a good Party member. Pure in word and deed. Banners, processions, slogans, games, community hikes—all that stuff. 1967 R. Brautigan Trout Fishing in America (1970) 83 One spring day she had me ascend to the attic and clean up some boxes of stuff and throw out some stuff and put some stuff back into its imaginary proper place. 1977 J. D. MacDonald Condominium xxxvii. 370 Once they left we were going to move his stuff out and change the locks.

f. Hence, with preceding epithet.

1929, etc. [see kid n.¹ 6]. 1932 S. Gibbons Cold Comfort Farm xiii. 191 She had best not pull any Cinderella stuff on me. 1939 Punch 5 July 9/1 ‘Sam,’ they said to him, ‘what's wrong? You can bowl much better stuff than that.’ 1948 Sporting Mirror 21 May 7/3 Jack Martin may also be available for fast stuff on occasions. 1974 Times Lit. Suppl. 26 Apr. 440/3 The principal message [of Hochhuth's comedy Lysistrate und die NATO] is largely straightforward feminist stuff. 1976 National Observer (U.S.) 9 Oct. 2/4 The threat of another oil embargo is always serious stuff here. 1978 D. Williams Treasure up in Smoke xiii. 120 What he said was pretty strong stuff... He fairly laid into Mr. O'Hara.

9. a. U.S. (See quot.) Cf. stuffy a. 4.

1787 J. Q. Adams Diary (1903) 66 She..has rather too much temper, or as it is called in New-England, too much stuff.

b. N. Amer. In various sports, the spin or ‘work’ imparted to a ball in order to make it vary its course; the type of control which effects this. Also fig.

1905 Sporting Life (U.S.) 9 Sept. 1/1 If I tried some of the stuff that certain pitchers use and escape bumping, I have an idea that the fielders would never stop..hitting. 1913 Harper's Weekly 13 Sept. 21/2 Weilman, the giant Brown, is another [pitcher] who has the ‘stuff’. 1927 Daily Tel. 21 Feb. 13/6 T. A. Workman, their captain, was in wonderfully good form against Commander S. W. Beadle, finding an almost perfect length for an American service which had plenty of ‘stuff’ on it. Beadle could not do anything with it, and was kept on the defensive throughout. 1936 J. T. Farrell World I Never Made v. 68 The O'Neills are proud of their name, and they got as much stuff on the ball in the game of life as old Three-fingered Brown has when he toes the mound. 1947 Sun (Baltimore) 3 Apr. 20/1 He is only 20 years old, has a good arm and has much of the well known stuff on the ball. 1967 Varner & Harrison Table Tennis v. 51 These spinners are often one-ball hitters: they vary their ‘stuff’ until you yield a loose return, which they efficiently kill. 1970 J. H. Gray Boy from Winnipeg 152 That got us seats behind home plate where we could watch the stuff, mainly curves, that the pitchers were putting on the ball. 1981 Washington Star 30 Apr. c 4/1 ‘I really had good stuff tonight,’ the lefthander said in a post-game radio interview. ‘My slider wasn't great at the beginning, but my fastball really was good.’

10. slang. a. Money, cash. Chiefly with article the stuff.

1775 Sheridan Rivals i. i, But has she got the stuff, Mr. Fag; is she rich, hey? 1787 Minor 198 He made me an offer of some stuff—for such, you may recollect, is the epithet bestowed by all great philosophers on gold. 1823 ‘Jon Bee’ Dict. Turf s.v., ‘Hand over the stuff,’ give the money. 1896 J. F. B. Lillard Poker Stories 50 Those were the days, my boy—..every sport with stuff in his pockets and lots of good clothes.

b. Stolen goods.

1865 Daily Tel. 3 Nov. 5/1 This particular parcel of ‘stuff’ was arrested, however, in mid course. 1894 Daily News 16 Oct. 2/5 Fitzpatrick at once confessed to complicity in the robbery, and said he would tell where ‘the stuff’ was.

c. Forbidden goods smuggled into a gaol.

1904 A. Griffiths 50 Yrs. Publ. Service xi. 154 We had news constantly of ‘stuff’ planted for cash in exchange.

11. Phr. not to give a stuff, etc. = not to give a fuck s.v. fuck n. 2. Cf. stuff v. 15 a. Chiefly Austral. and N.Z. slang.

1974 Bookseller 19 Jan. 117/3 A word or two of criticism: I don't give a stuff for your great managing director. 1976–7 Sea Spray (N.Z.) Dec./Jan. 62/1 Well, deep down inside I don't really give a stuff. 1977 Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Jan. 100/3 The list goes on and on and on and as it grows so does the feeling amongst the blokes in the bush that no one gives a stuff. 1979 N. Gordimer Burger's Daughter i. 42 In the end no one cares a stuff who's in jail or what war's on, so long as it's far away. 1980 B. Mason Solo 207, I don't give a stuff if it was or not. That spoke to me. Opened up my life, things I'd forgotten.

12. attrib. and Comb. a. attrib. passing into adj.: Made of stuff or woollen cloth (see sense 5 c).

c 1643 Ld. Herbert Autobiog. (1824) 162 A..person came to me apparelled in a black stuff suit. 1702 Post Man 17– 19 Sept. 2/2 Sad coloured stuff Coat, and black Hat. 1718 Freethinker No. 13 ¶8 Were she to be reduced to a Stuff-Gown to-morrow, [she] could part with all her Jewels and Brocades, without a Sigh. 1730 Inventory R. Woolley's Goods (1732) 11, 3 Chairs with Stuff Seats. 1839 Macaulay Gladstone Ess. 1865 II. 65 To tell a barrister..that he shall grow old in his stuff gown, while his pupils are seated above him in ermine. 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. ii. Bl. Mousquetaire ii. 80 The fusty stuff gown of a Sœur de la Charité. 1856 N. Brit. Rev. XXVI. 248 He led the Northern Circuit in a stuff gown, many silks being obliged to keep their talents in abeyance. 1857 Hughes Tom Brown i. ii, The field thronged with country-folk, the men in clean white smocks.., and the women..in new-fashioned stuff shawls. 1897 E. L. Voynich Gadfly i. iii, An old stuff frock that was too short for her.

b. Simple attrib., as stuff goods, stuff-manufacture, stuff mercer, stuff trade; objective, as stuff-finisher, stuff-maker, stuff-manufacturer, stuff-seller, stuff-weaver; stuff-weaving vbl. n.; parasynthetic, as stuff-bottomed adj.

1816 Scott Antiq. x, The..heavy *stuff-bottomed chairs.

1861 Internat. Exhib. 1862, Alph. Lists Trades 39 *Stuff Finishers.

1816 Acts 14th Congr. U.S. Sess. i. c. 107 §1 Blankets, woollen rugs and worsted or *stuff goods.

1780 Indenture Clifton, Notts, Bennet Thorpe, *stuffmaker.

1730 Lett. to Sir W. Strickland 11 The Callicoe-Act..made on purpose to encourage our *Stuff-Manufacture.

1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Stuff-manufacturer, a maker of thin woollen cloth.

1723 Lond. Gaz. No. 6139/3 John Harrison and Richard Harrison,..*Stuff-Mercers.

1711 Ibid. No. 4801/4 William Paine,..*Stuff-seller.

1884 Manch. Exam. 12 Nov. 5/3 It was proclaimed..that the *stuff trade had gone to the dogs altogether.

1706 Lond. Gaz. No. 4246/8 William Madlow,..a *Stuff-Weaver. 1832 Thackrah Effects Arts etc. on Health (ed. 2) Index 237 Stuff-weavers.

1702 E. Calamy Abridgm. Baxter's Life & Times iii. 34 Their Common Trade of *Stuff Weaving would find Work for all.

c. Special comb.: stuff ball (see quot.); stuff-chest Paper-making, the vat or reservoir into which the pulps from the beating engine are run and mixed; stuff engine Paper-making, the ‘beating engine’, a machine in which half-stuff is reduced to a fine pulp; stuff gown, a junior counsel (see 5 d above); so also stuff gownsman; stuff hat (see quot. 1839); stuff heap, a heap of coals and slack raised from a mine; stuff mark, a weaver's mark woven into goods for the purpose of identification or as attestation of their quality; stuff-melter Soap-manuf., an operative who extracts the oils, fats, etc. from the raw materials; stuff-over a., applied to chairs, etc., which are upholstered by having the material drawn over the frame of a fixed seat and secured beneath; also absol. as n., a stuff-over seat; stuff-presser Woollen-manuf., a workman employed in pressing or finishing the cloth; stuff shoes (see quot. 1892); stuff-shovel (see quot.).

1880 Sir C. H. J. Anderson Lincoln Pocket Guide 176 Patronesses of the *Stuff Ball. Established in 1787 for the encouragement of native woollen manufacture... The ladies used to wear stuff gowns, and the gentlemen stuff coats [etc.]. [List of Patronesses, 1787–1879, follows.]

1799 Hull Advertiser 1 June 1/1 Paper-mill..comprises..four vatts, *stuff⁓chests and beaters. 1881 Spons' Encycl. Industr. Arts iv. 1497 Whence the mixed stuff flows on the sand-tables, to be again used to dilute fresh pulp from the stuff-chests.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 924 The construction of the *stuff-engine is represented in figs. 785, 786.

1867 Woolrych Bar & Serjeant-at-Law 7 The promotions will be of a *Stuff Gown, as it is called, or of a learned Counsel of the Crown.

1852 Fraser's Mag. Feb. 129/1 A sagacious chancellor lifts a *stuff-gowns⁓man from the back row to the judgment-seat.

1839 Ure Dict. Arts 634 The materials used in making *stuff hats are the furs of hairs and rabbits freed from the long hair, together with wool and beaver.

1662 Act 14 Chas. II, c. 5 §15 Every Person..shall weave his proper *Stuff Mark into every peice of Stuff which he shall weave.

1884 A. Watt Soap-making 28 Kitchen-stuff, as prepared by the ‘*stuff-melters,’ is a very useful article for mottled soaps.

1915 R. S. Bowers et al. Furniture Making xxxi. 353 *Stuffover chair and settee. 1963 Times 2 Feb. 11 The slip-in seat is almost universal and the stuffover almost unknown in Portuguese Chippendale chairs. 1972 Country Life 1 June 1414/1 Regency mahogany dining chairs..with stuffover seats. 1976 Liverpool Daily Post 11 Dec. (Advt.), For sale, stuff-over roll back (Chesterfield Settee in silk damask).

1831 Thackrah Effects Arts etc. on Health 72 *Stuff-pressers carry heavy plates of iron heated to redness.

1794 Waldron Heigho for Husb. i. ii. 3 We'll..put on coarse linen gowns, and *stuff shoes; enrol ourselves at a register-office; get good places. 1892 Labour Commission Gloss., Stuff Shoes, shoes of which the tops or upper parts are made from ‘lasting’ [a woven worsted material], cashmere, or fancy cloth.

1858 Simmonds Dict. Trade, *Stuff-shovel, an implement used by the paper⁓makers.

▪ II. stuff, n.² Now S. Afr.
    (stʌf)
    Also 5 stuf.
    [a. Du. stof dust (cogn. w. G. staub): two independent adoptions.]
    Dust.

1481 Caxton Reynard xxxix. (Arb.) 107 Thenne wold he goo aboue the wynde and reyse the duste, that it made his eyen ful of stufs. 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting vi. 145 Herds..scouring away before me..amid such a cloud of stuff raised by their own tearing away that I never knew what I was firing at.

▪ III. stuff, v.¹
    (stʌf)
    Forms: 4–5 stoff, 6 stof, 4–7 stuffe, 5–7 stuf, 4– stuff.
    [a. OF. estoffer (NE. dial. stoffeir: Anglo-Latin stuffare) to furnish, equip, garrison (mod.F. étoffer, to furnish with what is necessary, to supply material for) = Sp. estofar, to embroider in relief, Pg. estofar, to embroider, to quilt, to stuff (cushions, meat):—Rom. *stoffare: for the ulterior etymology see stuff n.¹]
    † 1. a. trans. To furnish (a fortified town, stronghold, an army, a commander, etc.) with men, munitions, and stores; to garrison (a town). Obs.

13.. E.E. Allit. P. B. 1184 For þe borȝ was so bygge baytayled alofte, & stoffed wyth-inne with stout men to stalle hem þer-oute. 1375 Barbour Bruce xvii. 213 The king..vald nocht brek doune the vall, Bot castell, and the toune with-all, Stuff weill with men and vith vittaill And alkynd othir apparaill. Ibid. 350 Wardis..That war stuffit richt stalwardly With stanys, schot, and other thing. 1444 Rolls of Parlt. V. 74/1 Also to stuffe the Castelles, Tounes, and alle maner Forteresses. 1470–85 Malory Arthur i. i. 35 The kyng..badde hym be redy and stuffe hym and garnysshe hym, for within xl dayes he wold fetche hym oute of the byggest castell that he hath. 1513 Douglas æneis ix. iv. 4 The Troianis..All thar deray beheld..And baith wyth armour and with wappynnis brycht The tour hedis thai stuffit all that nyght. Ibid. xi. ix. 51 A party of the cietezanis, he said, Do stuf the entreis, and the portis defend. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 314 He passit to Athell, And stuffit hes ilk castell that wes strang With men and meit. 1611 Speed Hist. Gt. Brit. ix. xvi. §10. 653 S. Iean, a Towne of Normandy..which Edmund Duke of Somerset..had lately fortified and stuft with souldiers. 1640 Yorke Union Hon., Battles 11 Hertford Castle..like wise the Castle of Berkhampsteade, both which he stuffed with French Garrisons.

† b. To furnish (troops) with support; to reinforce; to support, aid (a war). to stuff a chase (Sc.), to provide men for, organize a pursuit. Obs.

c 1400 Destr. Troy 8284 Menelay with his men meuyt in swithe,..Restorit hom stithly, stuffit hom anon. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 277 To stuff the chas feyll frekis folowit fast. Ibid. v. 935, x. 268. 1513 Douglas æneis x. ii. 89 Gif I evir into that weyr Minysterit dartis, wapynnys, or sic geyr? Or ȝit that bargane stuffyt or bet,..With Cupidis blynd lust and subtilite? Than had bene [etc.]. 1533 Bellenden Livy (S.T.S.) II. 77 To stuffe þis army..war ekit þe auld centurions. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. (Rolls) III. 170 Tha tuke haill purpois in that samin place, Efter king Edward for to stuffe ane chace. c 1560 Rolland Seven Sages (Bann. Club) 203 Ane Empreour..Quha had greit Kings into his companie,.. Doing seruice..Sum for pastime and sum to stuf his weir.

† c. To marshal (troops). Obs.

a 1375 Joseph Arim. 601 Þe stiward of Tholomer stoffes hem to-gedere, and seis, [etc.].

† 2. a. To supply or furnish (a person) with arms, provisions, money, etc. Const. of, with. Obs.

c 1375 Barbour Bruce xi. 47 Off tresour so stuffit is he, That he may vageowris haf plente. 1387–8 T. Usk Test. Love i. x. (Skeat) 44 If thou laudest and joyest any wight, for he is stuffed with soche maner richesse, thou art in that beleeve begyled. 14.. Sc. Acts Robt. I (1844) I. 468/2 Ilk lord sal cum stuffyt & purvayt [L. stuffatus] to þe ost of caryage and vyttalis as he wil be servyt. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas ix. xxxviii. (1554) 217, I, not expert, nor stuffed with language. 1432 Rolls of Parlt. IV. 410/1 The merchantes strangiers been stuffed so gretely therwith. c 1475 Partenay 6378 Thys lady..To all other lades exemplair, Well stuffed with all maner of goodnesse. 1551 Edw. VI Jrnl. (Roxb. Club) II. 327 Then, that she shuld be brought at her father's charge three monthes before she was twelf, sufficiently juelled and stuffed. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. iii. v. 183 A Gentleman..Stuft as they say with Honourable parts. 1656 Burton's Diary (1828) I. 198 This day hath brought you work enough for half a year, and another day will stuff you sufficiently.

† b. To arm and equip (a soldier). Alliterative phrase, stuffed in steel. Obs.

? a 1400 Morte Arth. 1932 Whene any stirttez to stale, stuffe þame þe bettere, Ore thei wille be stonayede, and stroyede in ȝone strayte londez. a 1420 Aunters of Arth. 391 In stele was he stuffede, þat stourne vppone stede. c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 266 Befor him come feyll stuffyt in fyne steill. Ibid. x. 22 The Sotheroun was rycht douchty in thair deid, To gydder straik, weyll stuffyt in steyll weid. a 1483 Liber Niger in Househ. Ord. (1790) 17 Every man stuffed and renned [sic] at the Kinges costes of suche defence as he coude best deale withall.

† 3. a. To furnish (a place) with accessories, stock, inhabitants; to store with provisions, etc. Obs.

c 1386 Chaucer Clerk's T. 208 Houses of office stuffed with plentee. c 1400 Rom. Rose 7065 So that the tour were stuffed wel With alle richesse temporel. 1430–40 Lydg. Bochas iv. ix. (1554) 107 In a caue..he made him to be throu, The place stuffed with good barking houndes. 1449 Sc. Acts Jas. II (1814) II. 36/2 Gif ony man..resettis ony þat ar conuict of tresone..or þat stuffis the housis of þaim þat ar conuict of tresone..[they] sal be punyst as tratouris. 1523 Ld. Berners Froiss. I. cxxiii. 148 They fledde away..and left their houses well stuffed, and graunges full of corne. 1530 Palsgr. 742/1, I stuffe, or store a grounde with thynges that growe and encrease, je peuple. 1546 Supplic, Poore Commons (E.E.T.S.) 79 Bringyng them [sc. children] vp other to bear wallettes, other eles, if thei be sturdy, to stuffe prisons, and garnysh galow trees. 1570–6 Lambarde Peramb. Kent 168 This Weald..was..not planted with Townes,..but stoared and stuffed with heardes of Deare. 1598 R. Barckley Felic. Man ii. 101 Hee buildeth his house with his sonnes money,..and stuffeth it handsomely. 1603–26 Breton Poste Mad Lett. (Grosart) 42/1 Whose seruants better gouerned? whose house better stuffed and maintained?

† b. To store (goods) in a receptacle or place; to keep (flocks) in a place. Obs.

1567 Bauldwin's Mor. Philos. (Palfr.) iii. (1600) 58 Princes liue more surely with the gathering to them men of good liuing & conuersation, then with treasures of mony stuffed in their chestes. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. ii. i. 352 In Iuory cofers I haue stuft my crownes. 1605 First Pt. Jeronimo i. iii. 22 Farmers that crack barns With stuffing corne, yet starue the needy swarmes. 1606 Nottingham Rec. IV. 280 No person shall att any tyme hencefurthe stuffe, hould, or keepe any sheepe in or vpon any the sayd highwayes.

† 4. To line (a helmet, a garment) with cloth, etc. Obs.

13.. Gaw. & Gr. Knt. 606 Þe helme..Þat was stapled stifly, & stoffed wyth-inne. c 1400 Sege Jerus. (E.E.T.S.) 422 Was noȝt, while þe nyȝt laste, bot nehyng of stedis, Strogelyng in stele wede & stuffyng of helmes. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 735 Thai stuffit helmys in hy, Breist-plait and birny. 1473–4 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. I. 16 Gret braid clath to stuf ij doublatis to the King. 1552 Ibid. X. 70 Item, ane elne of quhite bukrame to stuff the hude and slevis. 1590 Sir J. Smyth Disc. Weapons 46 Deepe steele skulles in very narrowe brimbd hats, well stuffed for the easines of their heades.

5. a. To line or fill with some material as a padding; to distend or expand with padding; esp. to fill (a bedtick, cushion, etc.) with packing in order to furnish a yielding support. Also with out, up.

c 1450 Cov. Myst. (Shaks. Soc.) 241 Cadace wolle or flokkys,..To stuffe withal thi dobbelet, and make the of proporcyon. 1480 Wardr. Acc. Edw. IV (1830) 125 For making and stuffing of a sadelle. Ibid. 130 Federbeddes stuffed with downe. 1494 Act 11 Hen. VII, c. 19 Quyltes mattres and cussions stuffed with horse here. 1530 Palsgr. 741/2, I stuffe a tycke of a bedde with fethers, je emplume. 1597 Shakes. 2 Hen. IV, v. v. 87 Giue me your Doublet, and stuffe me out with Straw. 1644 Bp. Hall Serm. 21 July, Rem. Wks. (1660) 135 Many a one..hath found nothing but an image of clouts laid upon a bolster stuffed with Goats hair. a 1700 Evelyn Diary 4 Dec. 1679, The bound is made so exactly even, and the edges [of a billiard-table] not stuff'd. 1700 Dryden Baucis & Ph. 47 Two Cushions stuff'd with Straw, the Seat to raise. a 1716 South Serm. (1823) V. 140 Many of these [Plato's scholars] found it easier to imitate Plato's shoulders than his philosophy, and to stuff out their gowns than to furnish their understandings. 1784 Cowper Task vi. 674 For there [sc. in the theatre] some noble lord Shall stuff his shoulders with king Richard's bunch. 1827 Scott Surg. Dau. xiv, Horsemen..in a sort of defensive armour, consisting of rich silk dresses, rendered sabre proof by being stuffed with cotton. 1839 J. W. Burgon Gresham I. iii. 210 His breeches, which were stuffed out with cotton, were more useful than ornamental. 1891 Farrar Darkn. & Dawn i, He had lingered on, chewing in his agony the tow with which his mattress was stuffed. 1908 Animal Management (Vet. Departm., War Office) 210 To stuff a collar under these circumstances means that it is too tight when the horse puts up muscle.

transf. and fig. 1633 G. Herbert Temple, Love Unknown 48, I found that some had stuff'd the bed with thoughts, I would say, thorns. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. i. vi. 22 A considerable part of Ancient times, was by the Greeks themselves termed µύθικον, that is made up or stuffed out with fables. 1648 Gage West Ind. 122 Lying words of miracles, wherewith they stuffe up a whole houres preaching. 1699 Bentley Phalaris 296 His other Citations, with which his Margin is plentifully stuft out. 1781 Cowper Hope 105 No need, he cries, of gravity stuff'd out With academic dignity devout, To read wise lectures, vanity the text.

b. Of material: To serve as padding or stuffing.

c 1530 in Archæologia XXV. 503 For vj lb. of flock for to stuff cusshonys iiij d. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. ii. 47 The Barbers man hath beene seen with him, and the olde ornament of his cheeke hath alreadie stuft tennis balls. 1607 ― Cor. ii. i. 98 Your Beards deserue not so honourable a graue, as to stuffe a Botchers Cushion.

† c. To distend, expand (as if by padding). Obs.

1595 Shakes. John iii. iv. 97 Greefe fils the roome vp of my absent childe:..Stuffes out his vacant garments with his forme. 1605 Hist. Capt. Stukeley l 3, The ioyfull breath that issues from thy lips, Comes like a lusty gale to stuffe our sailes. 1631 Fuller David's Sin iii. xxx. (1867) 238 Their very sighs might serve to stuff the sail. 1678 T. P[orter] Fr. Conjurer i. 4 Let his Breeches be made straight and stufft with Whalebone, to reduce his Limbs into a Spanish Posture.

† d. To convert (into something) by stuffing. Obs. (? nonce-use).

1724 Swift Drapier's Lett. v. (1730) 176, I have read..of an Eastern King who put a Judge to Death for an iniquitous Sentence, and order'd his Hide to be stuffed into a Cushion.

6. Cookery. To fill (the inside of a bird or animal, a piece of meat, etc.) with forcemeat, herbs, etc. as a stuffing.

c 1430 Two Cookery-bks. i. 32 Fyrste Stuffe þin chekons in þis wyse. Ibid. 40 Þan stuffe hem as þou stuffyst a Pigge. 1530 Palsgr. 741/2, I stuffe a podyng or suche lyke, je farce. 1570 in Gutch Collect. Cur. (1781) II. 6 For a lege of mutton to be boyled and stofed with parshleye..viij d. 1591 A. W. Bk. Cookrye 12 To make puddings of a Swine..take the guts clean washed, and stuffe them with the aforesaid stuffe. 1596 Shakes. Tam. Shr. iv. iv. 101 As shee went to the Garden for Parseley to stuffe a Rabit. 1623 Middleton More Dissemblers iv. i. 154, I would they [the ducks] were all rotten rosted, and stuft with Onions. 1747 H. Glasse Cookery ii. 26 To Stuff a Leg or Shoulder of Mutton. Ibid. 36 Take a Turky or Fowl, stuff the Breast with what Force-Meat you like. 1846 A. Soyer Cookery 255 Stuff the rabbits and roast them. 1855 [Philp] Pract. Housewife 108 Tomatas, to stuff.—Take some fine tomatas and scoop the inside out, [etc.].

7. To fill out (the skin of a beast, bird, etc.) with material so as to resemble the living creature; spec. in Taxidermy, to fill the skin of (a bird or beast) with materials to preserve it and present it in its natural form.

1555 Eden Decades (Arb.) 261 He causes them [sc. rebels] to be slene..: Then to bee stuffed with chaffe, and sette vppe. 1592 Shakes. Rom. & Jul. v. i. 43 And in his needie shop a Tortoyrs hung, An Allegater stuft. 1617 Moryson Itin. iii. 163 The Cowes..will give no Milke till the skinne of the Calfe bee stuffed and set before them. 1727 [E. Dorrington] Philip Quarll (1816) 66 They carried away..the fine bird he had taken such pains to stuff. 1821 Scott Kenilw. xxx, Many birds have flown as high, that I have seen stuffed with straw, and hung up to scare kites. 1865 Dickens Mut. Fr. iii. vii, I was down at the water-side, looking for parrots brought home by sailors, to buy for stuffing. 1915 F. Legge Forerunners of Christianity II. xiii. 281 He was decapitated, and his skin stuffed with straw was suspended at the gate of the town.

8. a. To fill (a receptacle); esp. to fill by packing the materials closely together, to cram full. to stuff out: to fill a receptacle so full that it bulges; to distend with filling.

c 1440 Lydg. Hors, Shepe & G. 616 When deth approchyth..The riche is shet with coloures & picture To hide his careyn stuffid with fowle ordure. 1515 Barclay Egl. iv. (1570) C vj, Some mery fit..Of perte of Norwiche,..Or buckishe Ioly well stuffed as a ton. 1596 Shakes. 1 Hen. IV, i. ii. 146 If you will go, I will stuffe your Purses full of Crownes. 1613 J. Taylor (Water P.) Laugh & be Fat Wks. (1630) ii. 73/1 For as a candle's stuft with cotton weeke, So thou art cramm'd vp to the brim with Greeke. 1646 Sir T. Browne Pseud. Ep. ii. v. 87 So a glasse stuffed with peeces of spunge. 1675 Hobbes Odyss. viii. (1686) 98 The Horse of Wood..Stufft by Ulysses full of Warriours good. 1705 [E. Ward] Hud. Rediv. iv. 11 In's Hand a Wallet stuff'd with Papers. 1766 Goldsm. Vic. W. x. I. 84 At another time she imagined her daughter's pockets filled with farthings, a certain sign of their being one day stuffed with gold. 1781 Cowper Conversat. 310 But when unpack'd your disappointment groans To find it [a parcel] stuff'd with brick⁓bats, earth, and stones. 1827 Scott Surg. Dau. ii, His pockets stuffed out with bank-notes. 1830–60 W. Holmes Dorchester Giant iv, Then he brought them a pudding stuffed with plums. 1855 Kingsley Westw. Ho! xi, As soon as Fortune stuffs your mouth full of sweetmeats, do you turn informer on her? 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 855 The thickening of the hair is due to its being stuffed with fungus. 1904 B. von Hutten Pam i. iii, ‘Well, Jane, and so here we are,’ he began, stuffing his little meerschaum pipe from a leather bag.

b. Said of the filling material. ? Obs.

1664 Power Exp. Philos. i. 25 The crustaceous Cornea of the Creckets Eye, which I have carefully separated from all the matter which stuff'd it within. 1697 Dryden æneid ii. 26 With inward Arms the dire Machine they load, And Iron Bowels stuff the dark Abode.

c. To crowd, cram (a vehicle, room with persons). Also intr. for pass., to be crammed. Now rare.

1571 in Hudson & Tingey Rec. Norwich (1910) II. 345 The victualling houses were stuffed with players and dronkerdes. 1799 Sir M. Hunter Jrnl. 27 Feb. (1894) 138 On the wedding-day we assembled at ten o'clock, Jews and Christians; the room as full as it could stuff. 1829 C. Rose Four Yrs. S. Africa 10 The long heavy waggon..hired for the day, and stuffed with black damsels.

d. U.S. ‘To put fraudulent votes into (a ballot-box)’ (W. 1911).

1872 Schele de Vere Americanisms 272. 1906 Q. Rev. July 283 The interval had been devoted to stuffing the ballot-boxes.

e. To pack or load (a freight container). slang.

1965 R. B. Oram Cargo Handling vi. 115 Containers can come into..a Consolidation Depot where they are stuffed with miscellaneous general cargo. 1968 [see strip v.¹ 7 e]. 1972 Timber Trades Jrnl. 13 May. 44/1 The dockers threaten to continue the ban until their demands are met which include the exclusive right to stuff (pack) and unstuff (unpack) containers. 1972 Nature 11 Aug. 301/2 British dockers are..asking that members of their union should have a right to employment at the centres at which containers are stuffed with goods.

9. fig. a. To fill, crowd (speech, etc.) with something (usually something objectionable).

a 1568 R. Ascham Scholem. ii. (Arb.) 112 Som man..is ouer full of words, sentences, and matter, and yet all his words be proper... His whole matter grownded vpon good reason, and stuffed with full arguments. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 126 It shall not neede to stuffe my letter with particularities. 1591 Shakes. Two Gent. iv. iv. 134, I will not looke vpon your Masters lines. I know they are stuft with protestations, And full of new-found oathes. 1610 Holland Camden's Brit. (1637) 270 Stuffed hee [Nennius] hath that little booke with many a pretty lie. 1647 Clarendon Hist. Reb. i. §11 Those accusations.. are commonly stuffed with many odious generals, that the proofs seldom make good. 1682 Dryden Medal Ep. Whigs, Your Seditious Pamphlets are stuff'd with particular Reflexions on him. 1707 Hearne Collect. 22 Apr. (O.H.S.) II. 8 His Discourse was stuff'd with Anglicisms. 1768 Walpole Hist. Doubts 123 John Rous..is an author to whom no credit is due, from the lies and fables with which his work is stuffed. 1817 Jas. Mill Brit. India III. i. 35 The absurdities, with which..a bill of indictment is frequently stuffed. 1876 F. Harrison Choice of Bks. iv. (1886) 84 A book stuffed with curious facts.

b. To fill (a person, his mind, heart, etc.) with ideas, feelings, etc. Also with up.

1531 Tindale Expos. 1 John (1537) 77 They be so full stuffed wyth lyes, that they can receaue nothyng els. c 1550 Tottel's Misc. (Arb.) 234, I see well..by the sighes that thou outthrowest, That thou art stuffed full of wo. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. ii. xii. 47 b, Fortune..stuffed the hearte of the Athenians with..insatiable ambition. 1587 Turberv. Trag. T. 74 The Queene perceiuing this In mockage to be ment Of Alboyne..Was stuft with raging rancour streight. 1595 Shakes. John iv. ii. 133 Do not seeke to stuffe My head with more ill newes: for it is full. 1611 W. Trumball Let. 17 Feb. in 10th Rep. Hist. MSS. Comm. App. i. 563 These Provinces are no lesse stuffed with the unlikely newes of the King of Spaine's inclination to matche with y⊇ Lady Elizabeth then the Courte of Madrid. 1622 Fletcher Span. Curate iv. v, Pray ye buy Books,..You have a learned head, stuff it with Libraries. 1640 Fuller etc. Abel Rediv., Cowper (1651) 562 These men were stuffed with such pride, self-conceit, disdain, and intolerable contempt, that [etc.]. 1642 D. Rogers Naaman 110 They were stuft so full of their own skill and knowledge, that they scorned his simplicity. 1742 Pope Dunciad iv. 249 For thee we dim the eyes, and stuff the head With all such reading as was never read. 1876 Tennyson Harold ii. ii, I have often talk'd with Wulfnoth, And stuff'd the boy with fears that these may act On Harold when they meet. 1876 F. Harrison Choice of Bks. i. (1886) 2 Now, to stuff our minds with what is simply trivial, simply curious..this is to close our minds to what is solid and enlarging. 1889 Jerome Three Men in Boat 7 Don't stuff up your head with things you don't understand.

c. slang. To ‘cram’, hoax, humbug (a person). Also with up.

1844 ‘Jon. Slick’ High Life N. York I. 113, I wonder if these leetle coots think I'm soft enough to believe that [etc.]... They don't stuff me up that way, any how, if I did come from the country. 1859 Hotten's Slang Dict. 104 Stuff, to make false but plausible statements, to praise ironically, to make game of a person,—literally to stuff him with gammon or falsehood. 1885 Harper's Mag. Apr. 730/1 ‘That chatter-box Lenoir was joking,’ he said; ‘he was stuffing you to see how much you would both swallow.’

10. a. To fill (oneself, one's stomach, etc.) to repletion with food. Also said of the food.

a 1400–50 Wars Alex. 4436 Ȝoure mawis ȝe fill, With bakin mete..Stuffis so ȝour stomake with stullis & of wynes. c 1430 Lydg. Min. Poems (Percy Soc.) 155 The ryche man sit stuffyd at his stable [read table], The poore man stant hungry at the gate. 1585 T. Washington tr. Nicholay's Voy. iii. xi. 91 Wines..wherof they do stuffe them selues so ful. 1600 Weakest goeth to Wall B 2 b, O for one pot of mother Bunches Ale,..it would cleare my sight, comfort my heart, and stuffe my veines. 1607 Shakes. Cor. v. i. 53 When we haue stufft These Pipes, and these Conueyances of our blood With Wine and Feeding, we haue suppler Soules Then in our Priest-like Fasts. 1657 Sparrow Bk. Com. Prayer 156 Aerius and his followers..rising early to fill themselves with flesh and wine with which being full stuft they..scoff at the Catholick Christians folly. 1667 Milton P.L. x. 601 Ravin..which here, though plenteous, all too little seems To stuff this Maw. 1749 Fielding Tom Jones xii. xii. (1806) III. 197 He was prevailed upon, not only to stuff himself with their food, but to taste some of their liquors. 1800 Shelley On a Cat i, It waits for some dinner To stuff out its own little belly. 1897 Allbutt's Syst. Med. II. 1043 The latter [i.e. an Indian]..has so to stuff his stomach three or four times a day, that dilatation of that organ..must necessarily ensue. 1903 G. H. Lorimer Lett. Self-made Merch. xvii. 249 [He] Stuffed himself till his hide was stretched as tight as a sausage skin.

b. To cause (a patient) to eat to repletion. Also, to treat (a disease) by feeding up the patient.

1789 W. Buchan Dom. Med. (1790) 145 Stuffing the patient with sweetmeats and other delicacies is likewise very pernicious. 1849 Thoreau Week on Concord Wed. Writ. (1893) I. 338 Stuff a cold and starve a cold are but two ways. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VIII. 163 A cure was effected simply by stuffing them with food.

† c. To satiate, glut. Obs.

1530 Palsgr. 741/2, I am as moche stuffed at the stomacke with the savour of this meate as if I had eaten a great meale: je suis autant assouny en lestomac [etc.]. 1603 Daniel Def. Ryme H 6 b, Those continuall cadences of couplets..runne on, with..a kinde of certaintie which stuffs the delight rather then intertaines it.

d. intr. for refl. To gorge oneself with food.

1726 Swift To a Lady in Heroic Style 132 Let them neither starve nor stuff. 1728 [De Foe] Street-Robberies 14, I..call'd for my Dinner, and stufft heartily. 1760–72 H. Brooke Fool of Qual. (1809) III. 142 Gluttony stuffs till it pants, and unbuttons and stuffs again. 1794 J. Webster Agric. Galloway 16 They go to the plough at 6 in the morning, and return at 2 in the afternoon; when they begin to feed, (or stuff which is their phrase). 1797 Jane Austen Sense & Sens. xxx, And such a mulberry tree in one corner! Lord! how Charlotte and I did stuff the only time we were there! 1840 Barham Ingol. Leg. Ser. i. Bagman's Dog 351 The Bagman bluff Continued to ‘stuff’, Of the fat, and the lean, and the tender and tough.

e. trans. To gorge (food). Also with down.

1743 E. Montagu Corr. (1906) I. 142 Wishing many good things to a boy who was stuffing a luncheon of bread and butter. 1775 J. Jekyll Corr. (1894) 24 At six they stuff bread and cakes and wine. 1819 Ibid. 80 Lord Yarmouth again takes..a large party of us in the Admiralty barge next week to stuff whitebait at the ‘Artichoke’ beyond Greenwich. 1908 G. K. Chesterton Man who was Thursday 169 They paused for a few minutes only to stuff down coffee and coarse thick sandwiches at a coffee stall.

11. a. To fill (an aperture, cavity, etc.) by thrusting something tightly in; hence, to stop up, to plug; † to stop (a tooth). Also of a material: To fill up so as to block (an aperture).

1593 Shakes. Rich. II, i. i. 44 Once more, the more to aggrauate the note, With a foule Traitors name stuffe I thy throte. 1683 Sir K. Digby's Chym. Secrets 139 The Ashes must be taken out..that they may not stuff up the place. 1724 Swift Answ. to Dr. Delany 39 Misc. 1735 V. 21 Which made my Grand-Dame always stuff-her-Ears. 1824 Scott St. Ronan's xxiv, I would rather..that my ears were stuffed with the earth of the grave than that they should again hear your voice! 1824 C. K. Sharpe Corr. (1888) II. 323 Had I not been under the hands of..the dentist, touching a diabolical tooth, which cannot be stuffed, and I am sweer to pull. 1833 J. Rennie Alph. Angling 36, I found an old willow stump full of holes stuffed with clay. 1884 J. Gilmour Mongols vi. 91 The hero..stuffing the mouth of the hole with his white bonnet.

b. To fill up (a joint or other space) by cramming something in; spec. in Building, to fill in the inside (of a wall) with concrete or rubble. ? Obs.

1601 R. Johnson Kingd. & Commw. (1603) 151 Commonly the wals of strong places are built of great beames stuffed with turffe or mosse, leauing loop-holes for their shot. 1726 Leoni Alberti's Archit. I. 46/1 Let them be..as broad as the Wall, that there may be no need to stuff the middle with rubbish. Ibid. 47/1 The Ancients made it a rule in stuffing their Walls, not to continue the stuffing uninterrupted to the heighth of above five foot. 1776 G. Semple Building in Water 78 He treats largely of..filling (or stuffing as he calls it) the inside with small Stones, and Lime-liquid.

† 12. a. Of bodily humours: To clog, choke up (the body, its organs, vessels, etc.). Also with up. Obs.

c 1530 Judic. Urines iii. ii. 48 Yf that parte of the hede be agreued & stuffed or stonyed, through euyll humours and fumosites. Ibid. iii. vii. 51 b, Whan y⊇ liuer is stopped & stuffed through mater of euyl humours. 1585 Lupton Thous. Notable Things (1675) 180 Whosoever is stuffed in the Stomach with tough or hard flegm. 1618 Latham 2nd Bk. Falconry xxviii. 131 Whensoeuer you shall..haue such a Hawke that is any whit stuft in the head. 1657 J. Cooke tr. J. Hall's Sel. Observ. Engl. Bodies 98 The stomach being stuffed and burdened with ill humors. 1710 Fuller Pharmacopœia (1719) 98 It..stuffs up the loaded Bronchia with a fresh Income of Filth. 1750 J. Theobald Medulla Med. Univ. 65 This Gargle..is to cleanse and scour the Glands of the Mouth from the Phlegmatic Matter, that stuffs and swells them.

† b. To cause stuffiness in (the head or nose).

1555 W. Watreman Fardle Facions ii. i. 116 The plenty of swiete odours, and sauours in those quarters, doeth verely stuff y⊇ smelling. 1599 Shakes. Much Ado iii. iv. 64 Beat. I am stuft cosin, I cannot smell. 1620 Venner Via Recta ii. 39 The more bitter it be drunken, the more it filleth and stuffeth the head.

13. a. To thrust (something, esp. loose materials) tightly into a receptacle or cavity. Also fig. Also with away, in.

1579 W. Wilkinson Confut. Fam. Love 44 b, The Romanistes so cloyed the church with their fond festiuals, leud Legendes, and stuffed into the seruice of God such store of idle reuelations,..that [etc.]. 1626 Bacon Sylva §365 Put them [the rose-leaves] into a Sweet Dry Earthen Bottle,..stuffing them close together. 1649 Milton Tenure Kings (ed. 2) 57 They, in a cautious line or two here and there stuft in, are onely verbal against the pulling down or punishing of Tyrants. 1809 Malkin Gil Blas vi. i. (Rtldg.) 213, I bought these dresses, into which we may stuff an inquisitor, a notary, and an alguazil, and play the parts. 1854 Surtees Handley Cr. v. (1901) I. 42 With hands stuffed into his front pockets. 1878 Chamb. Jrnl. 19 Jan. 42/2 A woman was busy making a clearance of such articles as she could stuff away in corners and behind chairs. 1901 W. R. H. Trowbridge Lett. her Mother to Eliz. xxi. 100 She stuffed her handkerchief into her mouth to keep from shrieking. 1904 Bridges Demeter 280 He, like a hurried thief, Stuffs his rich silks into too small a bag. 1907 J. H. Patterson Man-Eaters of Tsavo xxiv. 276 Courageously stuffing his left arm right into the great jaws.

b. To pack tightly (a person) in a confined space; to crowd (a number of persons together). Also with down, up.

1728 Vanbr. & Cib. Provok'd Husb. ii. i. 26 One has really been stufft up in a Coach so long, that—Pray Madam—could not I get a little Powder for my Hair? 1770 Langhorne Plutarch, Pericles (1879) I. 196/1 A number of people stuffed together..in small huts. 1785 E. Inchbald I'll tell you what i. i. (1787) 10 If we are stuffed into a coach. 1900 E. Glyn Visits Eliz. 195 There I was, taken off to a sofa..and stuffed down between Godmamma and the Marquis's mother.

intr. for refl. 1749–50 Mrs. Delany Life & Corr. (1861) II. 535, I cannot forgive Mrs. J. stuffing into your chariot.

14. Leather-manuf. To dress (a skin) with a coating of dubbing or stuffing.

1844 Newton's Lond. Jrnl. Conj. Ser. XXV. 247 When the skin or hide is taken out of tan..the patentees oil the grain with good clean oil, then stuff the fleshy side with a mixture of oil, tallow, and turpentine, and hang it up to dry. 1885 H. R. Procter Tanning 193 The process of currying consists in softening..the hides and skins..and in saturating or ‘stuffing’ them with fatty matters.

15. a. Used in coarse expressions of contempt or defiance. Cf. fuck v. 2; stuffed ppl. a. 6.

1955 P. Larkin Less Deceived 30 Ah, were I courageous enough To shout stuff your pension! 1958 F. Norman Bang to Rights 168 The geezer just got up and told him to stuff his job. 1962 J. Wain Strike Father Dead iv. 205 Very well, they could keep the whole outfit. And stuff it. I wasn't even going to stay in the same miserable country. 1965 ‘T. Hinde’ Games of Chance i. iii. 99 ‘Stuff you,’ I said. 1973 J. Porter It's Murder with Dover i. 2 He should have taken a stronger line... Told old Crouch to stuff it. 1976 W. Trevor Children of Dynmouth xi. 204 She goes up to him and tells him to stuff himself and in a flat half-minute he's belting the old lorry up the London road. 1977 Time 28 Mar. 11/1 Stuff the criticism. He said what he was going to do. He won the election and now he's doing it.

b. vulg. slang. (With male subject) to copulate with (someone). Occas. intr.

1960 B. Moore Luck of Ginger Coffey iv. 85 Trying to stuff another man's wife, is that your idea of being a friend? 1977 F. Raphael Cracks in Ice (1979) 333 Satura..can also be applied, since it was originally adjectival, to a pregnant woman and to a sausage, both of which, in vulgar parlance, can clearly claim to have been stuffed. 1982 J. Scott Uprush of Mayhem vi. 63 You come all the way from the city..to stuff—to have intercourse with her. 1983 Sunday Times 16 Jan. 35/3 He was sacked from Eton for stuffing the boys' maids.

16. Comb.: stuff-guts, one who is addicted to gorging the stomach; in quot. attrib.

1875 Browning Aristoph. Apol. 112 In me, 't was equal⁓balanced flesh rebuked Excess alike in stuff-guts Glauketes Or starveling Chairephon.

▸ trans. Sport colloq. (orig. Brit.). To defeat (an opponent) comprehensively. Cf. stuffing n. Additions.

1986 Times 13 Sept. 38/3 Five of the team that beat England the other night played against us for Göteborg last season and we stuffed them 7-3. 1995 FourFourTwo Oct. 137/3 Spain stuffed them 5–1 on Albanian soil but usually visiting teams don't enjoy their trip to Tirana. 2004 Seattle Times (Nexis) 1 Jan. e4 The first meeting was 1999, Mike Holmgren's first year in Seattle. The Seahawks stuffed the Packers, 27-7.

▪ IV. † stuff, v.² Obs.
[a. OF. estofer (mod.F. étouffer). = Pr. estofar: of obscure origin.]
1. trans. To stifle, suffocate.

1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VI. 289 For aȝenst an hondred of Egbert his knyȝtes, þat were pale men and lene, come a þowsand þat were rody and fat, and were raþer i-stuffed [L. suffocandi] wiþ swoot þan with blood. Ibid. 449 A monke..fil doun of a brigge into a water, and was i-stufled [v.r. y-stoffed; L. suffocatus est]. 1398 ― Barth. De P.R. v. xxiv. (Bodl. MS.), And ȝif þe matere is colerike and woode it stuffeþ þe beest & sleeþ anon. c 1460 Brut cxxxiii. 138 (MS. Douce 323) Þere was grete hete..þat al stuffed [c 1400 stuffled: see stifle v. 1 b] was. 1530 Palsgr. 741/2, I stuffe a man with stynkynge savour, je empunaysis. Ibid., I stuffe one up, I stoppe his breathe, je suffoque. I wyll take the ayre, I was almoste stuffed up in the prease. 1612 T. Taylor Comm. Titus i. 6 (1619) 107 He that hath beene in a noysome place is stuffed. 1636 Featly Clavis Myst. xl. 618 We all that have lived in the pleasures of sinne, have our senses stuffed and debilitated.

2. intr. To become out of breath. Sc.

c 1470 Henry Wallace v. 285 His hors stuffyt, for the way was depe and lang. c 1470 Gol. & Gaw. 830 Quhen he is stuffit, than strike.

3. To render stifling.

1662 Boyle Def. Doctr. Spring Air iii. xviii. 81 [The Air] may thereby become sometimes more stufft, and sometimes more destitute of adventitious Exhalations.

▪ V. † stuff, v.³
Obs. rare. Var. of stow v.²

1587 Holinshed Chron. I. 173/2 He commanded that such pledges as had beene deliuered to his father by certeine noble men..should haue their noses slit, and their eares stuffed [1577 stoued].

▪ VI.     stuff, v.⁴ U.K. slang.
    (stʌf)
    [Prob. back-formation on stuffy a.]
    intr. To confine oneself in a stuffy atmosphere; to remain cooped up; to ‘frowst’.

1927 R. Lehmann Dusty Answer ii. 63 Why stuff indoors? Come out, Judith. 1941 J. Cary House of Children xxxiv. 142 On wet days we could read as much as we liked without being accused..of stuffing in the house. 1950 J. Cannan Murder Included vii. 167 Babette ignored his whistle, preferring..to stuff indoors. 1985 Company Dec. 52/2, I get a better feeling spending the day with hundreds of appreciative old people than ever I would sitting stuffing in front of the telly.