# stuffing

Pronunciation: US say "STUF-ing" /ˈstʌfɪŋ/; UK

## Noun

1. A seasoned mixture, often of bread and herbs, packed inside poultry or other meat before cooking.
   - Simple: A tasty mix of bread, herbs, and other foods packed inside meat before cooking.
   - _The cook filled the turkey with a chestnut stuffing before roasting it._
   - _He prefers cornbread stuffing to the bread-based kind at Thanksgiving._
2. The soft material packed into hollow objects such as pillows and saddles to give them shape and firmness.
   - Simple: The soft material put inside pillows, toys, and cushions to fill them out.
   - _The upholsterer replaced the saddle's worn stuffing with fresh padding._
   - _Foam stuffing makes modern pillows lighter than the old feather-filled ones._
3. The process of filling something by packing another material firmly inside it.
   - Simple: The act of filling something by packing material tightly inside it.
   - _The stuffing of sausages is done by forcing seasoned meat into casings._
   - _Proper stuffing of the cushion requires even distribution of the filling._
5. A severe defeat, especially a one-sided loss in a sporting contest.
   - Simple: A heavy loss in a game or contest, where one side beats the other badly.
   - _The visitors handed the league leaders an embarrassing stuffing._
   - _After such a stuffing, the manager faced tough questions from reporters._
6. The practice of inserting many copies of a word into a web page to push it higher in search engine rankings.
   - Simple: The trick of repeating a word many times on a web page to rank higher in search results.
   - _The agency relied on stuffing, cramming the same keyword into every paragraph to fool the algorithm._
   - _Google's updates made stuffing useless for boosting a site's visibility._
7. A mixture of oil and tallow worked into leather to soften and dress it.
   - Simple: A blend of oil and animal fat rubbed into leather to make it soft.
   - _Traditional tanners prepared their own stuffing from neatsfoot oil and tallow._
   - _A coat of warm stuffing restored the cracked harness to suppleness._
8. A tax loophole in which a corporation acquires loss-making property purely to reduce the tax it owes. *(US)*
   - Simple: A legal trick where a company buys something that loses money on purpose to pay less tax.
   - _Auditors flagged the deal as stuffing, an acquisition made only to manufacture a deductible loss._
   - _Reform proposals targeted stuffing alongside other corporate tax avoidance schemes._

## Verb

4. Present participle of stuff. — present participle and gerund of stuff
   - Simple: Present participle of stuff. Use it when an action is happening right now.
   - _He spent the morning stuffing pillows with feathers._
   - _The workers were stuffing boxes with packing foam._

## Origin

Formed from the word "stuff" combined with the suffix "-ing".

Source: DictionaryAI, https://dictionaryai.com/define/stuffing (written from Wiktionary data, CC BY-SA 4.0: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/).