stuffy en · ADJ
Pronunciation
- /ˈstʌfi/
- (Southern-England) audio
Etymology
Etymology tree English stuff Proto-Indo-European *-kos Proto-Germanic *-gaz Proto-West Germanic *-g Old English -iġ Middle English -y English -y English stuffy From stuff + -y.
Meanings
-
Poorly ventilated; partially plugged.
I can’t smell very well today – I have a stuffy nose.
Let’s go outside – it’s getting stuffy in here.
-
Uncomfortably warm without sufficient air circulation.
Abby Jimenez Like my life was a stuffy room, and you’re the breeze that came in when the window opened.
We all sat in stuffy classrooms and had men in tweedy sportscoats ruin our afternoons.
1988 May 6, Michael Miner, “"Chicago Times" Reaches for the Cutting Edge; Nicole Drieske Goes Public; Harry Golden”, in Chicago Reader, archived from the original on 01 Dec 2020:If Euston is not typically English, St. Pancras is. Its façade is a nightmare of improbable Gothic. It is fairly plastered with the aesthetic ideals of 1868, and the only beautiful thing about it is Barlow's roof. It is haunted by the stuffier kind of ghost. Yet there is something about the ordered whole of St. Pancras that would make demolition a terrible pity.
1941 August 14, C. Hamilton Ellis, “The English Station”, in Railway Magazine, page 358:
- Stout; mettlesome; resolute.
- (US) Angry and obstinate; sulky.
-
Boring, old-fashioned, uninteresting, over-formal, pompous, very conventional.
The stuffy professor droned on as the class lost interest.
It could be argued that the rise of the socially conscious model reflects a very 2017 archetype: the “woke” young woman, who looks set to define femininity this decade in the same way that the lager-swilling ladette did in the 90s. It is also symptomatic of a broader cultural “awokening” that has reached the stuffiest institutions; even the royal family has recently relaxed its upper lip.
2017 May 15, Hannah Marriott, “Woke models: how activism became fashion's latest must-have”, in The Guardian, London, page 9:
- (Scotland) Stout; sturdy.
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| stuffier | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic | |
| stuffiest | Degree=Sup | lexicographic |
Deriveds
unstuffy · stuffiness · stodgy · stuffily
Relateds
Synonyms
Translations (51)
nn kvam (poorly ventilated) · bg непроветрен (poorly ventilated) · ru спёртый (poorly ventilated) · es brioso (stout; mettlesome; resolute) · pl odważny (stout; mettlesome; resolute) · pl zapalczywy (stout; mettlesome; resolute) · ba тынсыу (poorly ventilated) · pt estufado (poorly ventilated) · it chiuso (poorly ventilated) · fi päättäväinen (stout; mettlesome; resolute) · mi haitutu (poorly ventilated) · fi tunkkainen (poorly ventilated) · fr en rogne (angry and obstinate; sulky) · mk непро́ветрен (poorly ventilated) · wa stofant (same use "fé stofant") (poorly ventilated) · cs zatuchlý (poorly ventilated) · pl nadąsany (angry and obstinate; sulky) · pdt enj (poorly ventilated) · es taponado (poorly ventilated) · fr fâché (angry and obstinate; sulky) · ru зало́женный (poorly ventilated) · mk реши́телен (stout; mettlesome; resolute) · ko 답답하다 (poorly ventilated) · pt entupido (poorly ventilated) · pl niezadowolony (angry and obstinate; sulky) · cmn 悶 /闷 (poorly ventilated) · nl bedompt (poorly ventilated) · fi murjottava (angry and obstinate; sulky) · mk на́муртен (angry and obstinate; sulky) · fr étouffant (poorly ventilated) · nl muf (poorly ventilated) · ru ду́шный (poorly ventilated) · fr mal aéré (poorly ventilated) · yue 焗 (poorly ventilated) · pl zatkany (poorly ventilated) · pl duszny (poorly ventilated) · es sofocante (poorly ventilated) · de verstopfte (poorly ventilated) · fr bouché (poorly ventilated) · pl naburmuszony (angry and obstinate; sulky) · hy տոթ (poorly ventilated) · cs ucpaný (poorly ventilated) · es viciado (poorly ventilated) · ru заби́тый (poorly ventilated) · bg заду'шен (poorly ventilated) · mk за́душлив (poorly ventilated) · mk за́душен (poorly ventilated) · nl benauwd (poorly ventilated) · es mal ventilado (poorly ventilated) · es congestionado (poorly ventilated) · de stickig (poorly ventilated)