stiff
part of speech
adjective (stiffer, stiffest); adverb (bored stiff, scared stiff)
meaning for a pupil
1) Stiff means hard and not easy to bend or move. tree →
2) If your body is stiff, your muscles or joints hurt and are hard to move. tree →
3) Stiff means difficult or strong, like a stiff test or a stiff wind. tree →
4) Stiff behaviour is too formal and not friendly or relaxed. tree →
5) Bored stiff or scared stiff means very bored or very scared. tree →
6) Stiff can also mean stubborn and refusing to give way. tree →
sense in the lessons
In science, stiff materials like card or metal do not bend easily; they are useful for supports and frames. In health, muscles are stiff after hard exercise, so stretch and warm up. A stiff neck with a fever and rash can be a sign of serious illness and needs a doctor. In cooking, beat egg whites until stiff. Phrases: a stiff neck, stiff as a board, bored stiff, a stiff breeze, stiff competition.
examples
- The new shoes are stiff and hurt my feet. tree →
- My legs were stiff after the long walk. tree →
- Cardboard is stiffer than paper. tree →
- I woke up with a stiff neck. tree →
- A stiff wind blew across the field. tree →
- The test was stiff, but I passed. tree →
- I was scared stiff during the film. tree →
- Who's a gwine fer ter stan' stiff-kneed en bol'. tree →
note
Adverb: stiffly. Noun: stiffness. Opposite: flexible or soft. Do not confuse stiff with "staff" (people who work somewhere).
In the corpora
- Everyone gets older: grey hair, glasses and stiffer knees come, but so do experience and wisdom.
- A loose wide tail wag usually means a happy dog, but a stiff high wag can mean the dog is tense.
- A hedgehog wears about five thousand spines, and each one is a stiff, hollow hair.
- A stick insect sways like a twig in the wind and drops to the floor stiff as a stick when touched.
- Przewalski's horses are short and stocky, sandy brown, with a stiff mane that stands up like a brush.
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «stiff» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.