Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(a) (also cross-stiff) paper, a document, esp. a promissory note or bill of exchange, a clandestine letter.

1823		‘Jon Bee’ Dict. of the Turf, the Ring, the Chase, etc. 166: Stiff — promissory notes and bills of exchange receive this familiar appellation.
1829		Reading Mercury 6 Apr. 4/5: Not over nice to taking a bit of stiff, if the barring is right as a trivet.
1840		London Mag. I 271: Customer: You can do a bit of stiff— eh, old fellow? Fitzen. Faith, sir, business getting worse and worse — plenty of promises, and little pay!
1849		Bell’s Life in Sydney 1 Dec. 3/3: John Harrison never gavo him [...] any written instructions; [...] the bit of stiff (not meaning a dead body) was not in his [...] hand-writing; [...] he, not being a resurrectionist, never stole the bit of stiff, or disposed of it for £20.
1853		R.S. Surtees Mr Sponge’s Sporting Tour 54: I’d rather take his ‘stiff’ than his cheque.
1859		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. 102: stiff paper, a bill of acceptance.
1867		Sportsman 10 Jan. 2/1: Notes on News [...] Shylock [...] that model for subsequent ‘stiffmongers’.
1873		Sl. Dict.
1880		Leicester Chron. 4 Sept. 9/6: He was engaged [...] in drawing up an elaborate ‘stiff’ for a naval pensioner .
1882		Sydney Sl. Dict. 10/2: I frisked a lushy yokel who was snoozing in the Park and found a thimble and no slang and a caser. He had a dummie, but no flimsies in it only some chovey stiffs.
1891		F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 4: A brawny convalescent [...] besought me, with tears in his eyes, to post a letter to a friend outside – in Moorportese ‘to mail a cross-stiff to a pal’.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 6 May. 3/8: Some warders have been in the habit of regularly communicating with prisoners’ friends outside the gaol, and bringing back ‘stiffs’ or letters to the man in the ‘Stone Jug’.
1903		see sense 3g.
1912		A. Berkman Prison Memoirs of an Anarchist (1926) 77: ‘A stiff,’ he whispers. Indifferently I pick up the note.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 335/2: stiff, n. 1. A letter or note.
1935		Thieves Slang ms list from District Police Training Centre, Ryton-on-Dunsmore, Warwicks 10: Stiff: Letter.
1937		‘Red Collar Man’ ‘Chokey’ 85: If [...] something is found, tobacco or a stiff (i.e., a letter), or money, he is kept in chokey.

(b) (US Und.) a newspaper.

1857		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 25 Apr. 3/1–2: [Bobby is] always on points, and somewhat ambitious to give important arrests to the stiffs (newspapers) for the purpose of making a terrible flash and gammoning the flats.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 264: They’d have nailed me easy, but the stiffs tipped me to the lay and I’ve been on the jump since.

(c) a currency note or cheque, whether genuine or forged.

1840		Courier (Hobart, Tas.) 27 Oct. 3/1: [from UK source] [L]ow prices, for ready gilt only, Stiff being no go.
1842		Comic Almanack Apr. 313: My share will take the shine out of a ten pound stiff.
1863		C. Reade Hard Cash II 252: Mr. Hardie has the stiff.
1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 22/4: See what I done for you. Mind the time you kerosined old Doodle’s pug? You’d a got a sixer, if I hadn’t a ‘squared’ it for a couple of ‘stiffs.’.
1901		Sydney Sportsman (Surry Hills, NSW) 10 July 1/1: A dozen pieces of ‘stiff,’ representing, say, an investment of £20.
1935		A.J. Pollock Und. Speaks n.p.: Stiff, a bank cheque.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 211/1: Stiff, n. [...] 4. A worthless check; a good check that thieves cannot afford to cash; an I.O.U.; any non-negotiable medium of payment to thieves or swindlers.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 158: Instead of getting all charged up spending money you think you’ve got and find out the check you’re trying to cash is a stiff.

(d) (Aus./N.Z./US/UK Und.) a note or letter, usu. between prisoners or passed illicitly into a prison by a relation etc.

1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 142/2: Once in [the lavatory] Joe would write his ‘stiff,’ and ‘plant’ it where we had agreed upon.
1879		‘Autobiog. of a Thief’ in Macmillan’s Mag. (London) XL 500: My pals used to send stiffs (notes) to the schoolmaster, saying that I was wanted at home.
1882		‘The Jargon of Thieves’ in Derry Jrnl 8 Sept. 6/5: If a criminal succeeds in smuggling a note out of jail, he is [...] ‘sneaking a stiff’.
1895		Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 81: Stiff, a letter.
1902		‘The Wasp’ ‘Tales of the Penance Track’ in Bulletin (Sydney) 31 May 31/1: Some of The Tough’s more violent admirers said that he sent out a ‘stiff’ (a secret letter) behind the glass eye of a late chum.
1903		H. Hapgood Autobiog. of a Thief 134: If I wanted to communicate with my friends in stir all that was necessary for me to do was to write a few stiffs (letters) and they would be sent by the Underground Tunnel.
1930		(con. 1910–20s) D. Mackenzie Hell’s Kitchen 120: Stiff ... note, letter.
1953		K. Tennant Joyful Condemned 52: Every time she smuggles a stiff out of gaol, it begins: ‘Rene, if I find you have been wearing my clothes I’ll smash your face in’.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/5: stiff: An illegal letter smuggled from the nick.
1977		G.F. Newman A Prisoner’s Tale 169: Smuggling a stiff out to his brief [...] was the only course of action left open.
1984		B. Ellem Doing Time 50: Censorship is a lot of rot, really, because if you’re gonna put something they don’t like in a letter you send out a stiff.
1990		Tupper & Wortley Aus. Prison Sl. Gloss. 🌐 Stiff. 1. A smuggled letter.
2007		N. ‘Razor’ Smith Raiders 270: The prison authorities captured a stiff, an illegal letter, being smuggled out.

(e) (US) a ballot paper.

1867

Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 16 Nov. 2/2: ‘You only showed your loyalty by putting in a “stiff” for the thirteen original states’.

(f) a begging letter.

1881		Nottingham Eve. Post 28 Jan. 4/5: The Mendicity blokes [...] has put the stopper on anybody doing much with a ‘stiff’ in London.
1882		Dundee Courier (Scot.) 13 Oct. 6/7: ‘Well, will you write me a stiff, then?’ he asked. [...] I wrote him the begging letter, setting for that the bearer had been discharged from the army through failing eyesight [...] I wrote myself a ‘stiff,’ passing as an actor whose voice was lost by severe illness.

(g) a letter.

1885		Bulletin (Sydney) 14 Mar. 10/3: He wrote that ‘stiff’ which made us sob. / To see him we’ve planked down our bob.
1893		P.H. Emerson Signor Lippo 105: You can keep that stiff.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl.
1962		F. Norman Guntz 34: One day I got a stiff from the Workshop saying that they would like to do my play.

(h) a hawker’s licence, or similar licence.

1886		W. Newton Secrets of Tramp Life Revealed 16: Many of this class will make as much as will purchase a ‘Stiff,’ or license, and stock of ‘snell,’ or buttons, needles, &c.
1896		M. Williams Round London 62: His principal expedient is to procure a hawker’s license, which is known among the brotherhood as a ‘stiff’.
1903		Bulletin (Sydney) 29 Oct. n.p.: The term ‘stiff,’ probably an abbreviation of certificate, was originally only used to describe such a document, now it means anything. A summons, a bill, a boat ticket, a travelling-stock permit (‘stock-stiff’), a licence – e.g., ‘Has he got a hawker’s stiff?’.
1914		Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl.

(i) money in general.

1886		Sporting Times 1 May 3/1: An obliging German lady [...] with whom he has negotiated a quantity of stiff.
1886		Eve. News (Sydney) 22 May 3/6: [S]ome went at pitch-and-toss, and two lots went for ‘nap.’ I don’t like this latter game, you lose your ‘stiff’ too quick.
1897		‘Ouida’ Massarenes 6: They are astonishing – biggest income in the United States, after Vanderbilt and Pullman [...] Made their ‘stiff’ there, and come home to spend it .
1930		H. Belloc New Cautionary Tales 58: He wrang his hands, exclaiming, ‘If I only had a bit of Stiff / How different would be my life!’.

(j) (US Und.) a piece of counterfeit money.

1890–1904		Farmer & Henley Sl. and Its Analogues.
1933		Ersine Und. and Prison Sl.
1950		Goldin et al. DAUL 211/1: Stiff, n. [...] 5. counterfeit money.

(k) a poster.

1891

F.W. Carew Autobiog. of a Gipsey 417: The vile’s readered all hover with these ’ere stiffs, – and she read hout, ‘Fifty Pounds Reward ... ’.

(l) (Aus./N.Z.) a summons from the police.

1894		Truth (Sydney) Feb. 1/8: So James, you’ve got your bit of blue at last — your ‘stiff’ — I thought they’d cop you.
1900–10		Stephens & O’Brien Materials for a Dict. of Aus. Sl. [unpub. ms.].
1903		see sense 3g.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 11 Aug. 1/1: The stiff against J.C. Williamson was quietly quashed [and] now that the goslings are safe away the Anderson summons has been re-issued.
1910		L. Esson Woman Tamer in Ballades of Old Bohemia (1980) 68: Constable: You’re qualifying for a stiff for the crust. / Smithy: (innocently) What have I done, Mr. Jones? / Constable: Nothing that I know of. That’s why you’ll get it. You’re likely to bring a sixer. I’m warning you.

(m) (Aus.) a free pass.

1905

Sun. Times (Perth) 28 May 1/1: The prevalence of deadheads was the most prominent item of a recent stoush [...] the way silvertails rolled up with stiffs incited the pugs to fierce remarks.

(n) the identification of a person targeted to be murdered, a murder contract.

1911

G. Bronson-Howard Enemy to Society 154: There’s a ‘stiff’ out for you from McGuimp’s gang.

(o) (US Und.) a prescription.

1914

Jackson & Hellyer Vocab. Criminal Sl. 88: White line, white lime. Current amongst yeggs and hoboes. Alcohol. Example: ‘You’ll have to go to the croker and get a stiff for the white line.’.

(p) (US) a criminal complaint.

1929

D. Hammett Red Harvest (1965) 66: Noonan stuck a cigar at me, tapped the document with another and asked: ‘Where's this broad?’ ‘In the City Hospital, dying. You'll have the ’cuter get a stiff out of her? That one's not so good legally’.

(q) (UK und.) a postcard.

1950

P. Hoskins No Hiding Place! 192/1: Stiff. Postcard.

(a) (US) a penniless man, a wastrel, a tramp, a migratory or unskilled worker.

1871		Wkly Arizona (Tucscon, AZ) 18 Feb. 4/2: He set out a glass and a bottle of lightning kept for the special use of ‘stiffs,’ The ‘stiff’ poured out a glassful of the stuff and [...] said ‘I ain’t got no money but...’.
1876		Silver City Avalanche 19 Feb. 3/3: The gentlemen in attendance were, Colonel P. Nicholson [...] and several ‘stiffs’ [DA].
1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 345: You wants me to be a blowed-in-the-glass stiff. [Ibid.] 384: An’ a stiff ’e says: ‘Blokey, squeal at that house over there – it’s a priest; he’ll scoff ye.’.
1905		Aus. Town and Country Jrnl 3 May 16/4: The most curious slang in the world is that of South Africa. [...] Ne’er-do-wells and cadgers are ‘stiffs’’.
1907		J. London Road 175: A ‘stiff’ is a tramp. It was once my fortune to travel a few weeks with a ‘push’ that numbered two thousand.
1913		Sport (Adelaide) 27 Sept. 4/3: A meeting of the Stiffs resulted in them taking Pearl Eye's nomination for the Hard-up Stakes .
1919		‘Hit the Road’ in J.J. Niles Singing Soldiers (1927) 128: Oh, it’s hit the road, you lousy bums, / You stiffs and weary Willies.
1927		‘Jargon of the Und.’ in DN V 462: Sea stiff, A sailor who has taken to the road.
1930		G. Milburn Hobo’s Hornbook 33: There was stiffs from every State / From ’Frisco to New Yawk.
1943		J. Mitchell McSorley’s Wonderful Saloon (2001) 24: ‘The stiffs.’ These are the most listless of bums. They are blank-eyed and slow-moving.
1953		S. Bellow Augie March (1996) 292: The lists he slipped me of other stiffs who wanted to join the union.
1967		‘Whisper All Aussie Dict.’ in Kings Cross Whisper (Sydney) xxxix 4/5: stiff: [...] A poor poverty-stricken person.
1968		in J.P. Spradley You Owe Yourself a Drunk (1988) 41: Salvation Army stiffs are clannish. They spot a non-stiff and feel superior.
1977		(con. 1908) J. Monaghan Schoolboy, Cowboy, Mexican Spy 110: Several times on the trip ‘shacks’ (brakemen) roused me at night to see if I was harboring ‘stiffs’ (hoboes).
1983		R. Aven-Bray Ridgey-Didge Oz Jack Lang 9: He did not want to lob into any of the pubs where the stiffs and warbs hung out.
1991		(con. 1920s) O.D. Brooks Legs 232: Two other stiffs were on the train heading for the same job.
2001		(con. 1945–6) P. Doyle Devil’s Jump (2008) 89: The place smelled of piss. Stiffs must have been dossing here.

(b) a disagreeable, or contemptible person; also used joc./affectionately.

1888–94		‘Walter’ My Secret Life (1966) XI 2210: ‘Oh aint yer a lying stiff,’ said she laughing heartily.
1898		F.P. Dunne Mr Dooley in Peace and War 28: Throw th’ stiff out.
1909		C.B. Chrysler White Slavery 70: Can you imagine some poor ignorant ‘stiff’ going out and ‘prowling’ some house, takin’ a chance on gettin’ his ‘roof blowed off,’ or gettin’ ‘slowed’ and ‘slammed’ in the stir for a ‘ten spot’.
1914		R. Lardner You Know Me Al (1984) 49: I suppose you seen where [...] Allen shut out Cleveland with two hits yesterday. The lucky stiff.
1926		‘Sapper’ Final Count 812: Do you see who has just come in? Standing next this awful stiff.
1934		C.A. Freeman ‘A Night-Side Prod’ in Goodstone Pulps (1970) 29/1: We old stiffs like to jaw.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 13: The Governor’s got a bunch of stiffs he calls the State Crime Commission.
1961		R.S. Close With Hooves of Brass 40: What was wrong with the big stiff? Any other guy would have been a wake-up long since.
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 46: ‘Whew! What a stiff,’ she accused him.
1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 31: This stiff they had for a mayor [...] who couldn’t keep the goddam streets in shape.
1989		H. Rawson Dict. of Invective (1991) 373: stiff. A person of little or no account, especially a dumb or disagreeable person.
1999		E. Bunker Mr Blue 52: Cicerone had slapped the stiff with a pistol.
2000		G. Pelecanos Shame the Devil 231: I know you think I’m some kind of stiff.

(c) (US) a mean, grasping person.

1899		J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 338: He drove some o’ them Eastern stiffs nearly wild with the way he throws his feet [...] ’n’ ’fore they know it they’re shellin’ out.
1939		‘Hotel Sl.’ in AS XIV:3 Oct. 240/2: stiff Non-tipping guest.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn) 226: stiff [...] a customer who does not tip.
1959		J. Thompson Getaway in Four Novels (1983) 80: The cabdriver accepted Doc’s tip with a grunt of surprise; he’d figured this pair for stiffs and maybe even no-pays.

(d) (horseracing) a useless, losing horse [abbr. stiff ’un n.].

1889		Dead Bird (Sydney) 10 Aug. 6/4: They know a thing or two in the old country, Joe [i.e. a bookmaker], and you have fewer stiffs to to asist you than you had out here.
1900		Bulletin (Sydney) 13 Jan. 24/4: If a backer, after he has sorted out the stiffs and found the only triers in the race, is not very careful, ‘bookie’ will probably put the name of one of the said stiffs on his ticket.
1952		in Lethbridge (Alberta) Herald 22 Mar. 14/4: A horse which runs in the can [i.e. loses] because his owner didn’t wish him to win that particular afternoon is a stiff.
1968		W.S. Hoffman Loser 59: ‘Hell, He Jr. hasn't got a chance. Barrow deserves better. What does he get? A stiff like He Jr’.
1972		C. Bukowski Erections, Ejaculations etc. 107: He’d picked a stiff, as usual.
1984		W. Murray Tip on a Dead Crab 87: You’re not going to bet real money on that stiff, are you?

(e) (also stiffy) an average person (thus gullible, see cite 1965), often with a description, e.g. working stiff n.

1891		Omaha Dly Bee (NE) 5 Sept. 7/3: The fust man we tried war a white-chokered stiff from Denver.
1902		Ade Forty Modern Fables 23: In speaking of him they called him The Stiff.
1904		Number 1500 Life In Sing Sing 255: Flogger Stiff. Overcoat thief.
1912		Ade Knocking the Neighbors 179: Certain Stiffs who hurried home before Midnight and wore White Mufflers, were trying to put the Town on the Fritz.
1927		(con. WW1) P. MacDonald Patrol 43: ‘A damn’ great stiff, all togged up in a demon mask’.
1928		C. McKay Home to Harlem 116: You poor black stiff!
1932		(con. 1919) Dos Passos Nineteen Nineteen in USA (1966) 695: He began to talk like a harvest stiff.
1936		Hotspur 11 Jan. 47: We’re beaten! [...] Those stiffs have got him.
c.1939		B. Bennett ‘Me and a Spade’ in Billy Bennett’s Fifth Budget 12: I know the stiff, it’s Buffalo Biff.
1940		B. Appel People Talk (1972) 271: The average stiff would come along and dig in with his dirty hands for a piece of ice.
1949		Wodehouse Mating Season 130: Now fewer than ten of Hampshire’s more prominent stiffs had been summoned to the trough.
1952		Lait & Mortimer USA Confidential 173: The union appropriates thousands, collected from its stiffs.
1955		Helfand Report 20: [used of a stand-in, a scapegoat] He says, I can't help it, I got to take you. I got to take you or get me a stiff .
1963		M. Braly Shake Him Till He Rattles (1964) 143: God, man, you’re no stiff. You know what’s happening.
1965		W. King Jr. ‘The Game’ in Kochman Rappin’ and Stylin’ Out (1972) 394: ‘You a trick, Dan—a stiffy,’ Herman said. ‘You so square Little Orphan Annie could put game on you’.
1977		P. Hamill Flesh and Blood (1978) 247: He wants you fightin’ in these fuckin’ tank towns against these fuckin’ stiffs for no fuckin’ money.
2000		M. Collins Keepers of Truth 104: You don’t look like a regular stiff.
2010		J. Ellroy Hilliker Curse 13: She [...] dumped him and married a rich stiff.
2016		D. Whish-Wilson Old Scores [ebook] ‘And you couldn’t get any more level with the ground than a building site office stiff’.
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 143: His neighbors were show-biz [...] stiffs.

(f) (US) any failure, a flop; in sport, a second-rater.

1895		Mirror of Life 30 Mar. 10/4: [W]e visited the Oxford Music Hall to see the supposed ‘stiff’ Slavin making Charley play bellows to mend.
1908		B. Fisher A. Mutt in Blackbeard Compilation (1977) 21: Take that and these and those and them, you weak-kneed stiff. I’ll get a divorce tonight.
1915		Van Loan ‘Sporting Doctor’ in Taking the Count 9: Tear into this stiff and show him how to take a joke.
1929		W. Winchell On Broadway 8 July [synd. col.] Please tell this bunch of stiffs how you did it.
1938		A.J. Liebling ‘The Jollity Building’ in Just Enough Liebling (2004) 246: When [...] it says in the paper he has had stiff opposition [...] that means the opposition has been stiffs.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 18 Jan. 10/4: [D]itch that ‘stiff’ and let her go.
1955		R. Graziano Somebody Up There Likes Me (1956) 175: Lou Miller called me a street-fighting Guinea bum around the gym, and said I was a real stiff.
1961		J. Scarne Complete Guide to Gambling 692: Stiff – an unlucky player.
1968		K. Brasselle Cannibals 180: Boy, was that old. And it was a real stiff. Why’d you ever do that turkey?
1978		P. Theroux Picture Palace 301: ‘They’re stiffs,’ I said. ‘They don’t matter. If you had any sense you’d see.’.
1986		B. Geldof Is That It? 213: In England we released the singles one by one, and they were total stiffs.
1994		M. Ribowsky Don’t Look Back 228: [T]he USL [i.e. a Negro pro baseballleague] was a financial stiff from day one.
2008		‘Grandmaster Flash’ Adventures 66: I had to have two crates—one for good joints and one for stiffs. A stiff was a joint that looked like it had some potential, but ended up being jive.

(g) a drunkard.

1907		J. London Road 170: The rolling of a stiff is oft-times an amusing sight, especially when the stiff is helpless and when interference is unlikely.
1931–4		D. Clemmer Prison Community (1940) 335/2: stiff, n. [...] 3. An intoxicated person.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 171: I ain’t [...] takin’ care of stiffs who get it [i.e. drink] somewheres else.

(h) (US Und.) a funeral.

1909

F.H. Tillotson How I Became a Detective 95: Stiff – A funeral.

(i) (US tramp) a tramp that has a job or occupation.

1926		W.H. Davies Adventures of Johnny Walker 51: Another is a ‘cattle-stiff’; then there is the ‘mission-stiff,’ and the ‘barrel-house-stiff’.
1930		‘Dean Stiff’ Milk and Honey Route 215: Stiff – A hobo worker. There are harvest stiffs, bridge stiffs, hospital stiffs, and many others.
1936		K. Mackenzie Living Rough 170: Three men in working clothes standing at the far end of the bar. ‘Irish pick-and-shovel stiffs,’ I thought. [Ibid.] 219: What a sucker I was [...] leaving Scotland and bumming around Canada! I’d have been better off, a buroo or parish stiff, than this.
1949		Monteleone Criminal Sl. (rev. edn).