Stuff Meaning
/stʌf/Definition, CEFR level B1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
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Definition
nounMiscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects.
nounMiscellaneous items or objects; (with possessive) personal effects., Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
Sentence Examples
I don't see how you can eat that stuff.
Oooh, sick! What is that stuff? It's all spongy.
What's all that sticky stuff on the carpet?
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef will ____ the turkey with a bread and herb mixture before roasting.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I have so much ____ in my closet that I can hardly find where I kept my winter coats and boots.
Word Origin & History
From Middle English stuf, stuffe, from Anglo-Latin stuffa and its etymon Old French estofe, estoffe, estuf, estuffe, stoffe, from estoffer, estofer (“to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff”), borrowed from Old High German stoffōn, from Proto-West Germanic *stoppōn (“to clog up, block, fill”). More at stop.
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"The Bat—they called him the Bat.[…]. He'd never been in stir, the bulls had never mugged him, he didn't run with a mob, he played a lone hand, and fenced his stuff so that even the fence couldn't swear he knew his face."
— 1920, Mary Roberts Rinehart, Avery Hopwood, chapter I, in The Bat: A Novel from the Play (Dell Book; 241), New York, N.Y.: Dell Publishing Company, →OCLC, page 01:
"and there went up after David about four hundred men; and two hundred abode by the stuff."
— 1611, Bible, 1 Samuel 25:13, KJV:
"He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff."
— 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI:
"The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill."
— 1697, John Davies, A Poem on the Immortality of the Soul:
"Pound an onion, warm a spoonful of ghee and throw in the onion, brown it slightly, add your curry stuff, brown this till it smells pleasantly, […]"
— 1887, Indian Cookery "Local" for Young Housekeepers: Second Edition, page 67:
Explore More B1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
The chef will ____ the turkey with a bread and herb mixture before roasting.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
I have so much ____ in my closet that I can hardly find where I kept my winter coats and boots.