subs. (once literary, now colloquial).—1. Belongings: furniture, goods, utensils: generic. The literary usage lingers in ‘household-STUFF,’ and in such a tributary sense as ‘food-STUFFS,’ ‘bread-STUFFS’ (= raw material).
1360. Anturs of Arther and Sir Amadace [Camden Society], 21. [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, i. 67. STUFFE stands for equipment; this led to its sense of furniture].
1427–9. Wills and Inventories [Surtees Society], 75. STUFFE of myn houses of offices as panetre and buttre.
c. 1430. The Destruction of Troy [E.E.T.S.], 5775.
| Assemblit were sone þe same in þe fight, | |
| And restorit full stithly þe STUFF of þe grekes. |
1593. SHAKESPEARE, Comedy of Errors, iv. 4. 162. Away, to get our STUFF aboard. Ibid. (1609), Tempest, i. 2. Rich garments, linens, STUFFS, and necessaries.
2. (old colloquial).—Money: generic (BEE).
1774. BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 261.
| Hector got no great store of STUFF | |
| Call’d cash, but ancient blood enough. |
1778. SHERIDAN, The Rivals, i. 1. Has she got the STUFF, Mr Fag? Is she rich, hey?
1891. N. GOULD, The Double Event, 160. When his party plank the STUFF down it’s generally a moral.
1896. LILLARD, Poker Stories, 50. Every sport with STUFF in his pockets and lots of good clothes.
1903. BART KENNEDY, A Sailor Tramp, I. iv. The sailor had spent over ten dollars by this time. ‘How did—did yoush get the STUFF, Sailor?’ he asked.
3. (old: still colloquial).—In contempt for anything to be swallowed: spec. medicine.
1605. SHAKESPEARE, Cymbeline, v. 5. 255.
| A certain STUFF, which being ta’en, would cease | |
| The present power of life. |
1819. T. MOORE, Tom Crib’s Memorial to Congress, 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. |
1851–61. H. MAYHEW, London Labour and the London Poor, i. 429. They carry … pint bladders of STUFF, or jigger-STUFF (spirit made at an illicit still) … and a tidy sale some of them had.
1897. MARSHALL, Pomes, 114. I was to doctor the STUFF, And be somewhere on hand with a pistol if the hocussing turned out a muff.
4. (colloquial).—Twaddle; fustian; trash—spoken or written. Spec. in such phrases as ‘STUFF!’ = ‘Rubbish!’ ‘STUFF AND NONSENSE!’ = ‘What ROT’ (q.v.)! (B. E. and GROSE). As verb = to GAMMON (q.v.): to fill full of lies, prejudice, statistics, victuals, etc. Whence STUFFING (journalists’) = superfluous matter, used to fill a given space; PADDING (q.v.).
1579. GOSSON, The Schoole of Abuse [ARBER], 66. What STUFFE is this?
1701. FARQUHAR, Sir Harry Wildair, iii. 1. Sir Harry. There is a repose, I see, in the next room. Lady Lure. Unnatural STUFF! Sir Harry. … As fulsome as a sack-posset.
1725. N. BAILEY, trans. The Colloquies of Erasmus, I. 278. A Deal of such STUFF they sung to the deaf Ocean.
1770. FOOTE, The Lame Lover [T. L. KINGTON-OLIPHANT, The New English, ii. 184. Some is pronounced to be NONSENSE AND STUFF; here we transpose].
1802. W. TAYLOR, in ROBBERDS’S Memoir, i. 425. If these topics be insufficient habitually to supply what compositors call the requisite STUFFING (and during the recess of parliament they are not likely to suffice), recourse is to be had to review, magazines and journals of celebrity for amusive anecdotes.
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 109. If they commended a piece I was ravished … but suppose they pronounced it bad? why, then I maintained that it was infernal STUFF.
1823. BADCOCK (‘Jon Bee’), Dictionary of the Turf, etc., s.v. STUFF.… Ridiculous or deceitful talk … if meant to harm another … is bloody STUFF. She hearkened to his STUFF, and got ruinated…. Bawdry is STUFF, that’s certain.
1855. TOM TAYLOR, Still Waters Run Deep, i. Potter. But, you will allow me to observe, it’s anything but STUFF AND NONSENSE.… I’ve not paid a farthing of the money yet.
1899. R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, xix. It’s all STUFF to say Sally’s shoulders are too much loaded.
5. (prison).—Tobacco.
6. (American).—(a) A simpleton, a weakling; and (b) a respectable citizen (thieves’).
7. (legal).—A Junior Counsel: as distinguished from SILK (q.v.): also STUFF-GOWN.
1903. Pall Mall Gazette, 19 Feb., i. 2. ‘Silk and STUFF’ [Title of Legal Column].
Verb. (colloquial).—To gorge; TO WOLF (q.v.).
1809. MALKIN, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 31. My drinking kept pace with my eating, and when I could STUFF no longer, I went to bed.
1838. WILLIAM WATTS (‘Lucian Redivivus’), Paradise Lost, 58. He eat as long as he could STUFF.
1868. W. S. GILBERT, Etiquette.
| He longed to lay him down upon the shelly bed, and STUFF; | |
| He had often eaten oysters, but had never had enough. |
TO STUFF A BALLOT-BOX, verb. phr. (American political).—To tamper with returns by the surreptitious introduction into the ballot-box of bogus voting papers. Hence STUFFER = a cheating teller.
