Green’s Dictionary of Slang

the erect penis.

1653		Urquhart (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) I Bk I 44: And some of the other women would give these names [...] my lusty live sausage, my crimson chitterlin, rump-splitter, shove-devil, down right to it, stiff and stout, in and to, at her again, my coney-borrow-ferret, wily-beguiley, my pretty rogue.
1793		Bacchanalian Mag. 117: But Roger and master she soon tired out, / And Dolly still panted for — stiff and stout.
[2012		M. McBride Frank Sinatra in a Blender [ebook] I let her know in no uncertain terms how much it would mean to me [...] if only I could take her back to the office and introduce her to Mr. Stout].

the erect penis.

1696

Motteux (trans.) Gargantua and Pantagruel (1927) II Bk IV 258: The stiff deity, Priapus [...] remained sticking in her natural Christmas box.

a morning erection, experienced on waking up.

1999

Roger’s Profanisaurus in Viz 98 Oct. 26: stiff-lock n. A piss-proud (qv) cock.

an erection; the erect penis; thus stiff-standing adj.

a.1650		ballad in Wardroper (1969) 194: For now I am stiff standing / And Cupid with his dart hath me at his commanding.
1768		Gentleman’s Bottle-Companion 9: The Stiff-Standing Member.
1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) III 629: I had meant to have ready a stiff-stander when she came back.

(UK Und.) someone who is dependable, whether as a source of money or support.

c.1850

Duncombe New and Improved Flash Dict. n.p.: Lad, stiff a fellow with plenty of money in his pocket; also staunch in any robbery or enterprise.

1. (US prison) a long prison sentence.

1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 212/1: Stiff rap. 1. A severe sentence.
1959		G. Duffy Warden’s Wife 63: Prisoners who, having been convicted of particularly heinous crimes, have stiff jolts to serve.

2. a criminal charge which one is not guilty of.

1950

Goldin et al. DAUL 212/1: Stiff rap. [...] 2. A criminal charge of which one is innocent.

(orig. US) to bore completely.

1910		Wodehouse Gentleman of Leisure Ch. xx: ‘Look here,’ said Lord Dreever, ‘this is boring me stiff. Let’s have a game of something.’.
1922		Joyce Ulysses 696: O Sweetheart May wouldnt a thing like that simply bore you stiff to extinction.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 84: I didn’t want to stay there [...] It bored me stiff.
1930		N. Devitt Famous S. Afr. Trials 27: The estimable body of men [...] [were] ‘bored stiff’ with the proceedings.
1940		E. O’Neill Long Day’s Journey into Night Act I: Oh, Mama, forget it! [...] Jamie and I would be bored stiff.
1962		P. Crump Burn, Killer, Burn! 303: What a ball we had, huh? This is one day that didn’t bore me stiff.
1991		C. Hiaasen Native Tongue 43: I was bored stiff.

(Aus.) to lose (a race) deliberately.

1890

Bulletin (Sydney) 12 July 7/4: A Sydney girl, aged fifteen, charged with stealing money, umbrellas, bags, &c., from little girls on their way to school, accounted for the possession of some money and property by saying it was given her by another girl to go ‘stiff’ in a race for a gold medal at a skating rink.

(US) strong whisky.

1859		H.E. Taliaferro Fisher’s River 31: Ha! boys let’s take some uv the knock-’em-stiff, fur I can’t half talk to these gentlemen candidates till I’m ’bout half slewed.
1859		(con. 1820s) ‘Skitt’ Fisher’s River 18: A rifle, a shot-pouch [...] and an article they dubbed ‘knock-’em-stiff’ were of vastly more importance than ‘larnin’’.
1864		‘Edmund Kirke’ Down in Tennessee 86: I’ll draw a jug uv Knock-em-stiff.
1905		E.A.U. Valentine Hecla Sandwith 5: Ah jedge thez plenty a knockem stiff fer the crowd [DA].

1. to knock unconscious or to shoot.

1833		Berks. Chron. 7 Dec. 4/4: My name is Jack-knock-him-stiff, and I’ll give you a sample.
1868		Buffalo Morn. Exp. (NY) 7 Feb. 4/2: A powerful blow in the eye [...] knocked Pencil stiff and senseless.
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 29: I knocked him stiff, and the gun fell to the floor.
1893		Dly Commercial Herald (Vicksburg, MS) 1 Mar. 2/4: It was the custom for the mates to hit lazy negroes on the head [...] ‘and knock them stiff’.
1897		Worker (Brisbane) 4 Sept. 8/4: The ‘rouseabout,’ his willing slave, who's ever on the spot / [...] / He sneeringly terms ‘loppy’ and a ‘leather-neck,’ and if / He doesn't ‘chuck’ himself about he swears to knock him stiff.
1931		R.E. Howard ‘Alleys of Peril’ Fight Stories Jan. 🌐 I decided [...] to [...] knock McCoy stiff as quick as possible.
1940		E. O’Neill Long Day’s Journey into Night Act III: You’re stinking now. That will knock you stiff.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 93: As I was walking down the street, the copper said to me: / ‘Do you belong to the doley-oh mob? Well, just come with me.’ / Grabbed me by the collar, tried to run me in; I upped with me fist and knocked him stiff, and we all began to sing.

2. to amaze or impress; thus knocked stiff.

1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 Feb. 8/3: Knocks you stiff when you hear of some of the doings of mining men.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 88: I bet this Marshall Field sky piece knocks ’em stiff when I breeze up Van Ness.
1912		Truth (Sydney) 15 Dec. 7/6: That there knocked him pretty stiff, Sir, / So he axed her what was wrong.
1916		J. Lait ‘Second from the End’ in Beef, Iron and Wine (1917) 190: They used to call you ‘the girl with the lavender tights,’ and you knocked ’em stiff at the Stuyvesant.
1927		H.C. Witwer Classics in Sl. 52: She slams that eight-hundred-buck gew gaw down on the counter like it was a Canadian dime and [...] I am knocked stiff again.
1929		J. Lait Broadway Melody 16: We’ll get our big chance and we’ll knock this burg stiff.

1. (US) to mistreat, to snub, to push aside; also n. a rebuttal.

1913		Atlanta Constit. (GA) 28 Nov. 8/1: On his second run he eluded or stiff-armed four Clemson tacklers.
1929		Atlanta Constit. (GA) 28 Aug. 15/4: Watkins stiff-armed a train to save his life [...] Watkins really stiff-armed himself away from it, before he fell unconscious.
1944		Green Bay Press-Gaz. (WI) 27 May 4/1: Mr Churchill [...] sidesteps, slithers and [...] stiff-armed Mr Wallace.
1959		‘Paul Merchant’ ‘Sex Gang’ in Pulling a Train’ (2012) [ebook] He knew how to to tap a till, how to mug a lush, stiff-arm a mark and lead a rumble.
1974		(con. 1940s) E. Thompson Tattoo (1977) 51: They had fled like fiends, Glenn stiff-arming the old-age pensioner guard who tried to bar their exit.
1991		Tampa Bay Times (St Petersburg, FL) 10 Jan. 2/1: Bush spoke of the Geneva meeting [...] ‘This was a total stiff-arm. This is a total rebuff. [...] We were stiff-armed by an intransigent foreign minister’.
2007		Lansing State Jrnl (MI) 23 Oct. 13/4: Does he know which player he stiff-armed on that touchdown run?
2016		Oshkosh Northwestern (WI) 25 Dec. A8/1: Jay Ajayi stiff-armed his way to his third 200-yard rushing performance.

2. (N.Z. prison) to stab.

2001

D. Looser Boobslang [U. Canterbury D.Phil. thesis] 178/1: stiff-arm v. to stab.

supercilious, arrogant, standoffish.

1958		G. Cotterell Tea at Shadow Creek 149: I had more respect for the stiff-arsed pommies who stayed just as they were at home, take it or leave it.
1960		(con. WWII) G. Sire Deathmakers 108: No stiff-assed son of a bitch is going to put me in a concentration camp.
1971		B. Malamud Tenants (1972) 64: You asked me to. If you think you made a mistake and are going to be stiffassed and uptight by what I say, maybe we ought to call it off before we start?
1989		P. Barnes Plays: One 380: But you’re one of those stiff-arsed moralists who see a favour as an opportunity to show their piss-green incorruptibility rather than their gratitude.
2003		J.C. Wright Golden Age 156: Listen to his stiff-arsed, high-nosed twang!

a general term of derision.

1965		W. King ‘The Game’ in King Black Short Story Anthol. (1972) 303: Some stiff-ass farmer tossed me and my brothers a tag long time ago with a heap others doing same.
1973		D. Goines Street Players 23: She sure ain’t got no stiff-ass nigger like you for her man.

(Aus./N.Z.) tough luck; the inference is that the speaker has very little actual sympathy.

1985		Age (Melbourne) 8 Mar. 5/4: When you can’t pay, the company just says, ‘Well we’ve got your signature so tough bikkies’.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 191: There is HARD LUCK, bad luck expressed in forms such as hard cheddar and hard cheese, both of which convey a lack of sympathy, if not a distinct heartlessness also heard in the terms stiff shit, tough bikkies, and the like.
2002		J. Dutch New Beginning 208: ‘It is a well known fact [...] that a person, even a woman person, may, on rare occasions, change her mind.’ ‘Tough bikkies,’ said Anderson. ‘Tough bikkies?’.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl.

(N.Z./Aus.) bad luck.

1960		J.E. Macdonnell Don’t Gimme the Ships 65: It was just stiff turps that the base admiral had to come aboard and catch him more than half bonkers.
1963–74		B. Humphries Barry McKenzie [comic strip] in Complete Barry McKenzie (1988) 48: It’d be stiff cheese if they dobbed out on this little issue.
1979		L. Peters Dirty Half-Mile 286: ‘They don’t like it!’ ‘Stiff cheddar mate!’.
1982		N. Hasluck Hand That Feeds You 6: You lock the house up. Disconnect the phone. Plug your ears with cotton wool. Stiff cheddar. You lie there wide awake...
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 59: ‘Stiff cheddar’ is an Australianism for the English phrase, ‘Hard cheese, old chap.’ In coarser and more unfeeling circles it is sometimes translated as ‘Stiff shit, mate.’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 107/2: stiff unlucky, often expressed sarcastically in such phrases as stiff luck, stiff cheese, stiff cheddar; eg ‘I’ve just eaten the last sausage roll. Stiff cheese, old boy. Teach you to be late.’.
1996		K. Lette Mad Cows 62: Women who’ve been handed the stiff cheese from fate’s fromage trolley.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 153: [T]he all-time most devastating piece of punting stiff-cheddar in the whole history of the punt game.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 200: stiff Unlucky, but often meant ironically, usually with addition as in stiff cheese/cheddar/kumara/luck 🌐 Bad luck. Originally Australian for penniless; unlucky in ANZ early C20.

bad luck, the implication is of unfairness.

1886		Wilkes-Barre Record (PA) 13 July 1/8: Danville [...] is liable to go to pieces any day now. At present they are playing in very stiff luck.
1915		Age (Melbourne) 10 June 9/6: It was stiff luck getting shot, just as I was starting to enjoy myself.
1917		N.Z. at the Front 107: Instead, they stood aside and murmured among themselves: ‘Stiff luck!’ [DNZE].
1918		Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Apr. 5/3: He got seven days C.B. Two hours later, his commission came through, but he had to do the seven days C.B. all the same. That’s what I call stiff luck.
1927		Culver Citizen (IN) 25 May 3/6: Stiff Luck. ‘What did you get on your birthday, Bobby?’ ‘Mumps’.
1930		Sydney Morn. Herald 4 June 7/6: Stiff luck, though, to have had to let the Koolyn go.
1941		F. Sargeson ‘That Summer’ in Coll. Stories (1965) 148: A young joker got up from the next seat and said he wished I hadn’t done that [...] Stiff luck, I said.
1968		Age (Melbourne) 15 July 22/1: [advert] Stiff luck Charlie.
1985		Age (Melbourne) 26 Mar. 21/3: ‘There’s no cure for the damn thing, so stiff luck’.
1988		McGill Dict. of Kiwi Sl. 107/2: stiff unlucky, often expressed sarcastically in such phrases as stiff luck, stiff cheese, stiff cheddar.
1993		Age (Melbourne) 13 Sept. 2/1: The club shuld be elite, with higher fees for those that can afford them. Stiff luck for those who can’t.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 200: stiff Unlucky, but often meant ironically, usually with addition as in stiff cheese/cheddar/kumara/luck 🌐 Bad luck. Originally Australian for penniless; unlucky in ANZ early C20.

see stiff ’un n.

a pompous, arrogant person; also as adj.; thus stiff-rumped adj., arrogant, pompous.

c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Stiff, Sti-ffrump [sic] proud, stately.
a.1704		T. Brown Letters to Gentlemen and Ladies in Works (1760) III 196: Our stiff-rumped Countesses in their silks and satins.
1707		Humours of a Coffee-House 21 Nov. 63: The inflexible Stiff-Rump [...] receiv’d the Honour.
1773		Harris’s List of Covent-Garden Ladies 58: Two brothers of the stiff-rumpt sect.
1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue n.p.: Stiff-rumped, proud, stately.
c.1790		‘Peter Pindar’ ‘Odes of Condolence’ Works (1794) III 259: For your modest stiff-rump’d neighbours all – There’d be a pretty kick-up – what a squall!
1795		Sporting Mag. July VI 228/1: So with such vile tautology, Stiff-rump, have done.
1811		Lex. Balatronicum [as cit. 1785].
1821		W. Combe Doctor Syntax, Wife (1868) 259/2: And though some stiff’rumpt folks beshrew it, / You’ll find it as you always knew it.
1834		‘Jack Downing’ Andrew Jackson 101: By this time the swannery of the John Bullites became pritty much a goosery. The old stiffrumpers begin’d tu waddle as limber as if they had never bin proud of their exploits with the monseers.

see stuffed shirt n.

(Aus.) hard luck; the inference is that the speaker has very little actual sympathy; also attrib.

1969		C. Carstairs Zero Heroes 53: ‘Vell,’ said the officer, ‘that is steef chit.’.
1979		R. English Toxic Kisses 3: ‘Stiff shit,’ whispers Lou as if he’s talking to a non-existent dummy on his lap.
1986		R. Beckett Dinkum Aussie Dict. 59: ‘Stiff cheddar’ is an Australianism for the English phrase, ‘Hard cheese, old chap.’ In coarser and more unfeeling circles it is sometimes translated as ‘Stiff shit, mate.’.
1989		R.G. Barrett Boys from Binjiwunyawunya 97: That’s the way we work, bloodnut. If you don’t like it — stiff shit.
1996		J. Byrell Lairs, Urgers & Coat-Tuggers 249: [He] had been lumbered with the nickname ‘Lennie The Loser’ due, in the main, to a fearsome piece of stiffshit kleiner luck.
1998		R.G. Barrett Goodoo Goodoo 83: If you [...] broke your back in six places and finished up a quadrplegic [...] stiff shit.
1999		G. Seal Lingo 191: There is HARD LUCK, bad luck expressed in forms such as hard cheddar and hard cheese, both of which convey a lack of sympathy, if not a distinct heartlessness also heard in the terms stiff shit, tough bikkies, and the like.

see separate entry.

(US black) to succeed, esp. in an illicit, but profitable, occupation.

1942

Z.N. Hurston ‘Story in Harlem Sl.’ in Novels and Stories (1995) 1008: Getting on some stiff time: really doing well with your racket.

1. physically stiff; rigid in posture.

1829		London Eve. Standard 5 Nov. 4/3: Hear him evpatiate on his little barky [...] ‘Oh! she is the fleetest of the fleet — sits on the water like a duck— stands under her canvas as stiff as a crutch— and turns to windward like a witch!’.
1834		Sydney Gaz. and NSW Advertiser 3 july 4/2: I had to practice a good fall — i.e. falling backwards as stiff as crutch, which always gave me a shock.
1845		Central Qld Herald (Rocckhampton, Qld) 27 Dec. 27/4: You have never seen a bloke fall like that [...] he goes down like a pole-axed calf. You can see his eyes roll and he goes stiff as a crutch.
1851		Glasgow Herald 24 Nov. 6/1: [of a dog] A pointer, which, if he have a good nose [...] will infallibly stand stiff as a crutch.
1847		Bell’s Life in Sydney 23 Jan. 2/3: She is small but beautifully moulded, while her great beam renders her ‘as stiff as a crutch’.
1862		Liverpool Mercury 1 Sept. 3/4: [of a horse] Caractacus [was] as stiff as a crutch.
1875		Fremont Wkly Jrnl (OH) 19 Feb. 5/1: He proceeded into the street to find Walsh frozen nearly ‘as stiff as a crutch’.
1883		Poverty Bay Herald (NZ) 19 Mar. 2/7: The appearance of Mischief, while walking in the saddling paddock prior to ringing up, ’as stiff as a crutch,’ confirmed public opinion.
1890		N.Z. Observer 12 Apr. 18/2: Puhipuhi [...] is ‘as stiff as a crutch’.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Sept. 24/3: I was as stiff as a crutch when I fought him and he couldn’t knock me out. I simply died away from sheer weariness.
1925		Age (Melbourne) 24 July 13/5: I was stiff as a crutch.
1935		Border Watch (Mt Gambier SA) 1 June 7/3: Now, after a day on the tractor I feel [...] stiff as a crutch.
1940		Windsor Star (Ontario) 17 July 10/5: [advert] When strenuous exercise [...] leaves you ‘stiff as a crutch,’ massage your aching limbs with Buckley’s White Rub.
1968		S. Gore Holy Smoke 7: Blimey – stiff as a crutch, as per usual.

2. dead.

1834		Bell’s Life in London 31 Aug. 2/5: Let them cant as they will, old Jack Scroggins maintains, / Max is strength to the muscle, and blood the veins. / If the gin-shops they shut up, my feeling is such, / That many a brave boy will be stiff a crutch.
1834		Roscommon & Leitrim Gaz. 21 June 2/2: [H]e was as dead as small beer, and as stiff as a crutch.
1889		Leicester Chron. 6 Apr. 3/4: [of a fox] He was too much beaten to last and died stiff as crutch.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Aug. 3s/5: A prad he had backed [...] would outpace the field [...] and then fall down — dead-stiff as a crutch.
1908		Chard & Ilminster News 5 Dec. 6/1: Raynard’s bolt was nearly shot, and the hounds pushed him [...] to run into him, as stiff as a crutch.
1914		Gloucester Jrnl 3 Jan. 12/5: The fox came [...] back towards Old Down, near which the hounds pulled him down, ‘stiff as a crutch’.
1930		Guardian 8 May 24/3: [of foxes] They suffer [...] by ‘dying on their feet’ [...] as they flee before the hounds, so that when finally overtaken, they are [...] ‘as stiff as a crutch’.

3. completely penniless.

1890		Burra Record 20 June 2/6: It’s really heartrending for one to [...] see the large number of recently warm men who are now monetary cripples — stiff as a crutch.
1900		Worker (Brisbane) 23 June 6/2: I’m stiff as a crutch,’ said I. ‘That means you are destitute’.
1905		Sun. Times (Perth) 4 June 4/8: Though I am stiff as a crutch I am still in close touch /With the trade.
1917		Western Champion 1 Dec. 15/2: He again left his money with the boss [...] He got to Melbourne in duue time as stiff as a crutch.
1922		Sun. Times (Perth) 15 Jan. 3/8: I met them in Murray-street [...] unshaved and unwashed and as ‘stiff’ as the proverbial crutch.
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 88: Of additional similes peculiarly our own, the following are among the best: [...] stiff as a crutch, penniless.

4. certain.

1922

Albany Advertiser (Aus.) 6 Sept. 4/3: East were as ‘stiff as a crutch’ to lose, as they had the best of things in the last quarter.

very stiff; cite 1899 refers to death.

1746		Teague-Root Display’d 11: The Male Teague-Root [...] becomes as stiff as a Poker.
1771		Foote Maid of Bath Married I iv: O’ons, I stand as stiff as a poker.
1800		G. Colman Yngr Heir at Law III ii: With a wig as wide as a wash-tub, and stuck up as stiff as a poker.
1819		Cambridge Chron. & Jrnl 5 Mar. 4/5: A tall thin thing [...] as stiff as a pike-staff, appeared. It was the semblance of a man.
1826		C.M. Westmacott Eng. Spy II 30: He was dead as a Dublin Bay herring – and now he lies in his cabin [...] as stiff as a poker.
1838		T. Haliburton Clockmaker II 126: I was e’en a’most frozen as stiff as a poker.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Auto-Da-Fé’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1842) 67: A small sword as long and as stiff as a poker.
c.1850		F.M. Whitcher Widow Bedott Papers (1883) 95: Stiff as a poker and prim as a pea-pod.
1851		Melville Moby Dick (1907) 29: He drew back his arm [...] and sat up in bed, stiff as a pike-staff, looking at me.
1877		‘The Fashionable Coaley’ in Laughing Songster 99: I ’spose you’ve heard that uncle’s dead, / And stiff as any poker!
1889		C. Deveureux Venus in India I 55: I don’t believe this can be a proper prick at all! [...] Because it’s always stiff as a poker—always standing!
1890		R.D. Blackmore Kit and Kitty II 17: ‘Dead as a doornail!’ said Rasp the baker. ‘Stiff as a starfish!’ cried Pluggs the grocer.
1899		Illus. London News 21 Oct. 10/3: The orderly, stiff as a pike-staff, held the reins in his left hand.
1899		Hants Advertiser 6 Dec. 4/3: The fox [...] was as stiff as a poker.
1905		E.W. Hornung A Thief in the Night (1992) 344: ‘It certainly is not necessary in my case,’ replied Nasmyth, still as stiff as a poker.
1921		D.L. Sayers Unpleasantness at the Bellona Club (1977) 35: Finding an old gentleman stiff as a poker in the best arm-chair.
1930		Edmonton Jrnl (Alberta) 30 Sept. 14/1: My fingers [...] were stiff as sticks.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 100: Luke was stiff as a poker.
1953		W. Fisher Waiters 258: Poor-ass white folks tryin’ to have a good time. Stiff as beaver board. Never able to let their hair down.
1967		Dly Mirror 10 Feb. 11/6: He suddenly found that he could not move his head, his neck was as stiff as a poker.
1976		Quad-City Times (Davenport, IA) 9 Apr. 14/1: The frog is stiff as a starfish.

lit. or fig., completely rigid.

1839		C.J. Lever Harry Lorrequer 28: Miss Betty O’Dowd [...] was the personification of an old maid; stiff as a ramrod.
1869		Middletown Transcript (DE) 12 June 1/3: ‘All right,’ answered the concierge, drawing himself up stiff as a ramrod and making a military salute.
1889		Boston Globe (MA) 7 May 2/2: ‘One of ’em is awful polite, sir [...] The other is stiff as a ramrod, sir, and don’t waste no words’.
1912		Illus. Sporting & Dramatic News (London) 3 Aug. 12/1: M’ganga, the headman, tall, fierce [...] stood stiff as a ramrod.
1922		Scotsman 2 Nov. 7/2: ‘We are going to stand as stiff as a ramrod for full recognition of European obligations’.
1940		Nebraska State Jrnl 19 Feb. 4/2: A strange fellow, appallingly precise of speech, glacially chilly in his manner [...] as stiff as a ramrod.

resolute, determined.

1897

‘A. Hope’ Phroso (1905) 75: ‘Are you going to let him off?’ demanded Denny, suspiciously. ‘You never can be stiff in the back, Charley.’.

(Aus.) keen on.

1918

Kia Ora Coo-ee 15 Mar. 11/1: The Devil is havin’ a bet on the mob, / The mob that’s marchin’ along, / He’s stiff on the favourite, (who’s leadin’ in front,) / And the odds is against me strong.

to die.

1993

M. Dibdin Dying of the Light 22: We can’t cash in till she stiffs out.