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 stiff = to turn testy; a stiff (= strong and steady) breeze; stiff (= incredible) news; a stiff (= difficult) examination; a stiff (= high) price: cf. steep: also, a price (or a market) stiffens = goes higher: to pay stiffly = to pay expensively; a stiff (= firm, unyielding) market; a stiff upper lip = courageous; to cut up stiff = to leave a large estate: cf. warm and supra.

1608. Shakspeare, Ant. and Cleop., i. 2, 104. Labienus—this is stiff news—hath with his Parthian force Extended Asia from Euphrates.

1620. Fletcher, Philaster, iii. 1. With a stiff gale their heads bow all one way.

1711. Addison, Spectator, 119. This kind of good manners was perhaps carried to an excess, so as to make conversation too stiff, formal and precise.

1784. Cowper, Tirocinium, 671. And his address, if not quite French in ease, Not English stiff, but frank, and form'd to please.

1855-7. Thackeray, Misc., 11. 272. The old gent cut up uncommon stiff.

1885. D. News, 28 Sep. The stiffness of country rates also tends to give firmness to the attitude of staplers.

1842. Tennyson, Will Waterproof. But, tho' the port surpasses praise, My nerves have dealt with stiffer.

1887. D. Chron., 21 Mar. Yarns were very stiff.

1893. Harper's Mag., lxxxvi. 447. We now left the carriages and began a stiff climb to the top of the hill.

1899. Westcott, David Hume, xvi. He's got a pretty stiff upper lip of his own, I reckon.

2. (venery).—(1) Wanton: e.g., a stiff quean = a harlot (Ray); and (2) priapic: see Stand. The stiff deity (or the stiff and stout) = the penis in erection.

1653. Urquhart, Rabelais, i. xi. And some of the women would give these names, my Roger my stiff and stout. Ibid. (Motteux), iv. v. The stiff deity, Priapus remained sticking in her natural Christmas box.

1720. Durfey, Pills, &c., vi. 201. And may Prince G's Roger grow stiff again and stand.

Stiffler. See Stickler.

Stiff-fencer, subs. phr. (streets').—A hawker of writing paper.

Stiff-rumped, adj. phr. (colloquial).—Proud; stately (B. E. and Grose).

d.1704. Brown, Works, iii. 196. Our stiff-rumped Countesses in their silks and sattins.

Stiffy, subs. (American).—A well-dressed conceited boy (Bartlett).

Stifler, subs. (thieves').—1. The gallows: also stifles: see Ladder and Nubbing Cheat. Hence to nab the stifler = to be hanged; to queer the stifler = to escape the rope.

1818. Scott, Midlothian, xxiii. I think Handie Dandie and I may queer the stifler for all that is come and gone.

2. (provincial).—A busybody (Halliwell).

3. (common).—A severe blow.

Stigmatic, subs. (old).—1. A branded criminal; (2) anyone deformed; and (3) a contemptible wretch.

1598. Shakspeare, 2 Hen. IV., ii. 2, 136. But, like a foul, mis-shapen stigmatic.

1601. Chettle and Munday, Death of R. Earl of Huntingdon, 76. That prodigious bloody stigmatic portendeth still Some innovation, or some monstrous act.

1616. Philomythic [Nares]. Convaide him to a justice, where one swore He had been branded stigmatic before.