stuff
Formsstuffs, stuffing, stuffed
- 1Unspecified things, activities, or matters that the speaker does not name precisely.
There's a lot of stuff going on at work right now.
She knows a surprising amount of stuff about old movies.
UsageSay a lot of stuff or some stuff (not
incorrect: stuffs); and stuff trails off a list. - 2Miscellaneous items or objects; with a possessive, a person's belongings, including personal effects and household goods.
The movers carried her stuff into the new apartment in under an hour.
Boxes of stuff from the estate sale filled the back of the truck.
UsageOften with a possessive (pick up your stuff, all her stuff), or after of (a box of stuff).
Similarthings, belongings, possessions, gear
- 3To fill a container or space tightly with something, or to push or cram something into a space, often hastily or to excess.
Commuters stuff the train cars well past capacity during rush hour.
She stuffed the envelope with flyers before the afternoon mail pickup.
UsageEither the container or the contents can be the object: stuff a pillow with feathers, stuff clothes into a bag.
Similarcram, pack, jam, squeeze
Note
Dryden's Persius warns of a swelling dropsy that would "stuff thy skin," which shows the "to excess" edge. You stuff a pillow, a suitcase or a drawer; the thing filled is the object, and with names what goes in.
- 4To fill a food item with a seasoned mixture before cooking.
The chef stuffed the chicken breasts with spinach and feta.
For the holiday, they stuff a whole fish with lemon, garlic, and dill.
UsageThe food being filled is the object, and with names the filling: stuff peppers with rice.
Similarfill
Note
The mixture itself is called stuffing, also dressing. The aim is flavor from within, so the filling goes in before cooking, unlike a sauce spooned on afterward.
Checked 2 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Stuffing adds flavor within the food. en.wikipedia.org
- The filling is inserted before cooking. fda.gov
- 5A substance or material, especially one whose exact name or type is unknown, unimportant, or left unstated.
The mechanic sprayed some stuff on the hinge and the squeak stopped.
Gray stuff oozed from the crack in the old pipe.
UsageTakes some, that or the rather than a: some sticky stuff, that green stuff.
Note
A word for reaching past the name of something: some of that stuff on a sundae, the gray stuff in a pipe. It stays uncountable, so it takes some, that or the, never a. Doodad and thingamabob do the same job for objects you can count. It also stretches to whole categories. George Goodchild in 1935 has a character ask to be woken for "that running commentary stuff," and The Economist uses the stuff simply to avoid repeating oil.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- Wiktionary attributes the passage to chapter 3 of Goodchild's Death on the Centre Court. The character asks to be woken for the commentary, rather than avoiding it. en.wiktionary.org
- The Economist uses "the stuff" to refer back to oil. transformative-mobility.org
- 6The essential substance or character of a person or thing, considered abstractly.
Her calm under pressure proved she had the stuff of a real leader.
These rivalries are the stuff of sports legend.
UsageOften the stuff of legend or dreams, or what stuff someone is made of.
Similarsubstance, material, matter
Note
Shakespeare gave this sense its two most quoted lines. Julius Caesar's "Ambition should be made of sterner stuff" fixes the pattern of made of plus an adjective of quality. The Tempest's "We are such stuff / As dreams are made on" ends in on, not of, and the difference matters when quoting it. Used of people, the sense describes what a person is made of inside.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The quotation occurs in Shakespeare's Julius Caesar, spoken by Antony, and its wording is exact. folger.edu
- The Tempest quotation, spoken by Prospero, has the stated wording and uses on. folger.edu
- 7
- 8
Less common meanings
- 9To eat, or cause someone to eat, heartily or greedily until very full; to satisfy an appetite to excess.
We stuffed ourselves on barbecue and could barely move afterward.
Guests tend to stuff themselves at the buffet and skip dinner entirely.
UsageUsually stuff yourself, with or on the food; stuff your face says it more bluntly.
Similargorge
- 10Refuse or worthless matter, and by extension foolish or irrational talk.
The editorial dismissed the rumors as stuff and nonsense.
Workers hauled the rotten stuff from the flooded basement straight to the dump.
UsageOften in the set phrase stuff and nonsense.
Similarnonsense, rubbish, garbage, junk, trash
Note
Applied to talk, stuff is a dismissal, and it can stand alone as a retort: "Oh, stuff, Julia!" in Upton Sinclair's play The Machine, or Lewis Carroll's Bellman declaring a claim "all stuff." John Dryden uses it for bad writing, "such woeful stuff." The doubled stuff and nonsense is the fixed phrase, and as a euphemism stuff is a softer stand-in for coarser words for rubbish.
- 11Used to dismiss or reject something with contempt, as a deliberately rude refusal.
He told the board it could stuff its severance package.
Stuff the schedule. We're taking the day off.
UsageFixed frames: stuff your rules, you can stuff it, take your job and stuff it.
Note
A rude dismissal that lives in a few fixed frames: stuff your stupid rules, he can stuff it, you can take your job and stuff it. The thing rejected is the object, and it is usually an imperative or follows can. Milder than outright obscenity, it is still a deliberate insult. Tom Holt's character treats finally saying it aloud as a lifelong ambition fulfilled.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- A character in Tom Holt's Here Comes The Sun celebrates finally saying the dismissal as something she has wanted to say all her life. en.wiktionary.org
- 12
- 13Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.
Dealers cut the stuff with powder to stretch their supply.
He swore to his sister that he was off the stuff for good.
UsageUsually the stuff: off the stuff, hooked on the stuff.
Similardope, drug, gear, horse
Note
Drug-world slang, in which the most general noun available is narrowed to the drug that matters, usually heroin. William Burroughs, in a 1947 letter, sets stuff against tea as two different substances. Outside such talk a phrase like buy stuff is entirely innocent, so the surrounding context carries the meaning. Dope and gear work the same way.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- William Burroughs contrasted stuff with tea in a letter dated 1947; the source specifies 11 March. en.wiktionary.org
- 14To break or destroy something, leaving it useless.
He stuffed the gearbox by slamming it into reverse at speed.
One bad power surge can stuff every appliance in the house.
UsageOften as the adjective stuffed, with totally or completely: the car's stuffed, meaning broken.
Similarbreak, wreck, ruin, bust, fry
Note
Regional usage in Britain, Australia and New Zealand for wrecking something, typically a machine: he totally stuffed his brand new car. The past participle doubles as an adjective, so the car's stuffed means it is broken, a phrase that elsewhere would suggest it is packed full. Intensifiers such as totally and completely sit naturally with it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 2 facts
- The sense meaning to break or destroy is identified with Britain, Australia and New Zealand. en.wiktionary.org
- Stuffed is also an adjective meaning broken or nonfunctional. en.wiktionary.org
- 15To obstruct or block an organ, especially the passages of breathing or the senses.
Her ears felt stuffed after the long flight, and every voice sounded far away.
Every spring, pollen can stuff up his nose so badly that he can hardly taste his food.
UsageOften as stuffed or stuffed up: my nose is stuffed up.
Similarblock, clog, congest, plug, bung
Oppositeclear, unblock, decongest
Note
Shakespeare's "I am stuffed, cousin; I cannot smell" in Much Ado About Nothing is this sense: blocked, not full. It stays closest to the Germanic root behind the filling verb, which meant "to clog up, block." The thing obstructed can be the person or the organ itself, such as the ears, nose or sinuses.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Beatrice says, “I am stuffed, cousin, I cannot smell.” gutenberg.org
- The quotation refers to nasal obstruction from a cold. rsc.org.uk
- The filling verb derives through French from a Germanic verb meaning to clog up, block or fill. en.wiktionary.org
- 16
- 17To penetrate someone sexually.
The lads traded crude stories about who had stuffed whom.
He leered and said he'd love to stuff the new barmaid.
Note
A vulgar verb from British, Australian and New Zealand speech that belongs with fuck, root and screw. It takes the person as its object and fits only the coarsest talk. Because the verb has so many innocent senses, a careless sentence about stuffing someone can land here by accident for listeners in those regions.
- 18To crowd someone's mind with facts, or to fill it with false or idle tales.
His tutors stuffed him with Latin verbs and the dates of kings.
The old sailor loved to stuff the boy's head with wild tales of sea monsters and buried gold.
Similarcram, fill, load, overload, pack
Note
A dated use close to cram: tutors once stuffed a pupil with facts, and the same pattern served for filling someone's head with idle tales. The construction is stuff someone with something, with the person or the mind as the object. It carries a note of disapproval, since what is stuffed in is not digested, whether facts or fancies.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 3 facts
- Stuff historically meant to cram someone's mind with facts. en.wiktionary.org
- The educational use described filling pupils with facts. gutenberg.org
- The same historical sense included filling someone's mind with idle tales. en.wiktionary.org
- 19Money, in the slang of the criminal underworld.
Similarmoney, cash, loot, dough
Note
Dated underworld slang for money. Like the drug sense, it takes the vaguest noun available and lets the speakers' world supply the meaning. It belongs to period crime talk. In present-day writing, the stuff in a criminal setting is far more likely to be read as drugs, so money needs saying plainly.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Stuff is documented as dated criminal slang for money. en.wiktionary.org
- 20A medicine or medicinal mixture; a potion.
Note
An obsolete medical use, best seen in Shakespeare's Cymbeline. There a speaker says he "did compound" for her "a certaine stuffe" that would stop "the present powre of life." Compound is its natural partner: this stuff is something mixed. A modern reader will take some stuff for a fever as the vague placeholder, so the old sense needs period context.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 4 facts
- Stuff has an obsolete sense meaning a medicine or medicinal mixture. en.wiktionary.org
- William Shakespeare wrote Cymbeline. internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
- Cymbeline was first published in 1623, in the First Folio. folger.edu
- A character says he compounded a preparation for a woman that would stop the present power of life; the quoted wording occurs in the play. internetshakespeare.uvic.ca
- 21Textile fabric used for garments, the term covering any woven cloth but applied especially to woolens.
She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.
1992, Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety"And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.
1857, The National Magazine, volumes 10-11Note
An archaic word for cloth that keeps a foothold in historical fiction. Hilary Mantel's A Place of Greater Safety (1992) sends a character out for "good woollen stuff." It also works before another noun, as in Letitia Landon's "gray stuff dress" (1834), meaning a dress of plain woven cloth. Here stuff names the fabric a thing is made of, not what is inside it.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 5 facts
- Stuff has an archaic sense denoting cloth used to make garments. en.wiktionary.org
- Hilary Mantel wrote A Place of Greater Safety, first published in 1992. openlibrary.org
- Mantel's novel describes a character going out to buy fabric, using the exact words “good woollen stuff.” en.wiktionary.org
- Landon's cited work, Francesca Carrara, was published in 1834. en.wikisource.org
- Letitia Landon's narration contains “gray stuff dress,” with stuff identifying the dress's fabric. en.wiktionary.org
- 22Boards used for building; sawn planks of timber.
Similarmaterial, lumber, boards
Note
An archaic narrowing of the material sense to the material a builder works with: boards. In an old account of a house going up, good stuff means sound planks, not belongings. A present-day reader would take the word as material in general, so modern writing needs a plainer term for building boards.
Checked 1 Nov 2026 · 1 fact
- Stuff has an archaic building-material sense meaning boards; the example about good planks illustrates that sense. en.wiktionary.org
- 23To cut off a competitor in a race with an abrupt maneuver that disturbs the racing line they have committed to.
- 24To pack one or more files into a compressed StuffIt archive, which can later be unstuffed.
- 25Paper stock that has been ground and is ready for use; when only partly ground, it is called half stuff.
- 26A melted mixture of turpentine, tallow, and similar ingredients smeared on a ship's masts, sides, and bottom for lubrication.
While the ships were placed in ordinary “a thick coat of stuff” was applied to the hulls, and their awnings might be spread or sheds erected to provide some protection from sun and weather.
2012, Thomas Williams, American Honor: The Story of Admiral Charles Stewart
Showing meanings only.
Practice
Can you tell the meanings of stuff apart? Answer 3 quick questions from this page, or write your own sentence and AI will check it.
Origins
The noun goes back to Middle English stuf, stuffe, borrowed both from Medieval Latin stuffa and from Old French estofe. That French noun was based on the verb estoffer ("to equip, provide what is necessary"), a borrowing of Old High German stoffōn, which in turn came from *stoppōn, a Proto-West Germanic verb meaning "to clog up, block, fill." Stop is related.
The verb began as Middle English stuffen ("to equip, furnish"), taken from Old French estoffer ("to equip, provide what is necessary"). The French verb was borrowed from Old High German stoffōn, which came from *stoppōn, a Proto-West Germanic verb meaning "to clog up, block, fill." It is related to stop.