stuffing n.1
(orig. US) the essence, the ‘daylights’, as in phrs. below; also used fig.
![[US]](/static/img/flags/us.png "United States") | Sazerac Lying Club 203: I’ll bet forty-five to fifteen I can lick the stuffin’ out of the doggoned, ornery, consarned critter. | |
| Ouachita Teleg. (Monroe, LA) 17 Sept. 1/6: I bedam if I can’t just whollip the pea-green stuffin’ out o’ the gum-dashed galoot. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 2 Oct. 14/3: If Boston will agree to out-sail the English cutter Galatea. Chicago will promise to pound the stuffing out of the callow Detroit crowd. | |
![[NZ]](/static/img/flags/nz.png "New Zealand") | Bruce Herald (Otago, NZ) 18 July 7: If you want to get the stuffin’ tore out of you, you just take me! | |
| ‘The Romance of a Busy Broker’ in Four Million (1915) 214: Talk quick, please — those fellows are clubbing the stuffing out of union pacific. | |
![[UK]](/static/img/flags/uk.png "United Kingdom") | Rampant Age 277: Ya keep ya mouth shut, or I’ll thrash th’ stuffin’ outa ya! | |
| Travels of Tramp-Royal 153: Stop arguing, and give us our money, or I’ll punch the stuffin’ outa you! | |
![[Aus]](/static/img/flags/aus.png "Australia") | (con. 1830s–60s) All That Swagger 155: I’ll foller ole Jimmy and belt the stuffin’ outer his ole hide. | |
| Diaries (1999) 14 Dec. 94: I am glad the stuffing is being taken out of Mussolini at last. | |
| Riverslake 213: Frightened the stuffing out of poor old Uncle. | |
| Jeeves in the Offing 14: I ripped the stuffing out of the beastly little brochure. | |
| Much Obliged, Jeeves 120: It would be a blow calculated to take all the stuffing out of her. | |
| Danny Boy 104: Hell, man! You nearly scared the stuffing out of me! |
In phrases
to beat up thoroughly; in fig use, to exploit to the limit (see cite 1928).
| Topeka Dly Capital (KS) 3 Sept. 3/1: A big nigger woman [...] nearly beat all the stuffing out of him. | |
| Saddle and Mocassin 123: Get up, or I’ll beat the stuffing out of you! | |
| Kansas Chief (Troy, KS) 31 Oct. 3/4: Zeph Hayes will beat the stuffing out of both of them. | |
| Oakland Trib. (CA) 1 Nov. 12/3: ‘I’ll beat the stuffing out of you,’ is the response Curtain is alleged to have made. | |
| Wash. Times (DC) 8 Apr. 12/1: ‘Gaffney wired me today that this team would beat the stuffings out of us’. | |
| Stage (London) 24 May 12/4: It’s their business to beat the stuffing out of a song before their rivals. | |
![[Scot]](/static/img/flags/sco.png "Scotland") | Eve. Teleg. (Dundee) 25 Oct. 15/5: Jerry beat the stuffing outa me. Whaled me till I couldn’t stand. | |
| Sheboygan Press (WI) 27 Jan. 11/2: Sylvester boasts he would love to meet a pirate and beat the stuffing out of him. | |
| ‘Mama’s Missionary Money’ in Coll. Stories (1990) 317: She knew his ma ’ud beat the stuffin’s outen him if he refused. | |
| Tatler (London) 16 Jan. 15/1: He then beat the stuffing out of his own party [...] until they beat the stuffing out of him in 1908. | |
| Murder in Mount Holly (1999) 30: ‘Fixed him up?’ asked Miss Ball [...] ‘Beat the living stuffings out of him.’. | |
| Belvedere Dly Repub. (IL) 12 Oct. 5/1: That’s all it usually takes for the A’s to beat the stuffings out of someone else. | |
| Dayton Dly News (OH) 23 Nov. 37/4: Many wanted to beat the stuffing out of this political turkey. | |
![[Ire]](/static/img/flags/ire.png "Ireland") | Eve. Herald (Dublin) 19 Nov. 27/6: Rosie was nursing cuts and bruises. ‘She beat the stuffing out of me’. | |
| Times (Shreveport, LA) 23 June 6/2: ‘If a woman beat the stuffing out of every guy who hit her, would that be a “hate crime”?’. |
to beat up thoroughly, to defeat comprehensively.
| Wkly State Jrnl (Topeka, KS) 3 May 7/2: The supreme court [...] should knock the stuffing out of the theory. | |
| Northern Trib. (Cheboygan, MI) 13 Nov. 9/3: I’ll be afther kicking the red, white and blue stuffin’ out of yez. | |
| Dead Bird (Sydney) 21 Sept. 3/4: ‘If John Smith, who, twenty years ago, deserted his poor wife and babe, will return, said babe will knock the stuffing out of him’. | |
| Cornishman 23 Apr. 7/6: Bump into me again and I’ll knock the stuffing out of you. | |
| ‘Bill, the Ventriloquial Rooster’ in Roderick (1972) 143: Yer rooster knocked the stuffin’ out of my rooster, but I bear no malice. | |
| [perf. Gus Elen] ‘Down the Dials’ 🎵 We can knock the blooming stuffing out St Giles. | |
| Truth (Sydney) 15 Apr. 3/8: Mr Garvan did not see the joke and [...] threatened to kick the stuffing out of the Paddington choice. | |
| Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 19 May 11/3: [H]e was heard to murmur something about kicking the stuffing out of her. | |
| Sun. Times (Perth) 13 Mar. 8/2: Said turn-out fairly knocks the stuffing out of all other carriage folks. Dame’s horses are the biggest and her landau the most capacious in town. | |
| Lincoln Jrnl Star (NE) 25 Sept. 4/2: ‘Knock the stuffing out of me, will he?’ I’ll tear him limb from limb!‘. | |
| Ulysses 241: But the best pucker for science was Jem Corbet before Fitzsimons knocked the stuffings out of him, dodging and all. | |
| (con. 1880–90s) I Knock at the Door 179: Take them that way, an’ you’ll knock the stuffin’ outa them. | |
| Kent & Sussex Courier 30 Apr. 3/3: Witness asked him what he meant by saying that he was going to knock the stuffing out of him. | |
| Dundee Courier 11 Jan. 2/4: We are going to knock the stuffing outof the Tory party. | |
| Till Human Voices Wake Us 102: [H]alf a day in there’ll knock the stuffing out of you. | |
| Belfast Teleg. 10 Sept. 17/1: [advert] 20 Chances to Knock the Stuffings Out of Inflation! | |
| You Wouldn’t Be Dead for Quids (1989) 37: He wanted to kick the stuffing out of the old wino for stealing them in the first place. | |
| Eve. Herald (Dublin) ‘M.T.’ onbviously intended to knock the stuffing out of Paddy Power with his Big Fight bet: . | |
| Eve. Herald (Dublin) 22 Dec. 23/1: New rivals knock the stuffing out of trad turkey dish. Croc meat now tickling Irish yuletide palaates. | |
| Baltimore Sun (MD) 25 Nov. B3/3: Jake Smith’s Baltimore Boxing promotions will [...] host ‘Knock the Stuffing Out’ today. |
to hurt emotionally, to wound.
| ‘Dads Wayback’ in Sun. Times (Sydney) 17 Aug. 5/2: ‘[E]r kiddie in Barjo took all ther stuffin’ out o’ me [...] “Look out fer ther old man!” they cries’. | |
| Till Human Voices Wake Us 13: The inevitability of the law [will] soon take the stuffing out of any hero business. |