stiff

Meanings

Adjective

• Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.
• Inflexible; rigid.
• Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
• Harsh, severe.
• Painful as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.
• Potent.
• Dead, deceased.
• Erect.
• Having a dense consistency; thick; Difficult to stir.
• Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.
• Of an equation: for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
• Keeping upright.
• Of a shot: landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball with the next shot.
• Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.

Noun

• An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education.
• A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.
• A cadaver; a dead person.
• A flop; a commercial failure.
• A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
• A customer who does not leave a tip.
• Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
• Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
• A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

Verb

• To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.
• To cheat someone
• To tip ungenerously.

Origin

• From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English stīf, from Proto-Germanic *stīfaz (compare West Frisian stiif,
• Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif), from Proto-Indo-European *steypós (compare Latin stīpes, stīpō, from which English stevedore).