1819. Moore, Tom Crib, 17. Sandy tipp'd him a dose of that kind, that, when taken, It isn't The stuff, but the patient that's shaken.
1851-61. Mayhew, Loud. Lab., i. 429. They carry . . . pint bladders of stuff, or jigger-STUFF (spirit made at an illicit still) . . . and a tidy sale some of them had.
1897. Marshall, Pomes, 114. I was to doctor the stuff, And be somewhere on hand with a pistol if the hocussing turned out a muff.
4. (colloquial).—Twaddle; fustian; trash—spoken or written. Spec. in such phrases as 'Stuff!' = 'Rubbish!' 'Stuff and NONSENSE!' = 'What ROT' (q.v.)! (B. E. and Grose). As verb = to GAMMON (q.v.): to fill full of lies, prejudice, statistics, victuals, etc. Whence stuffing (journalists') = superfluous matter, used to fill a given space; padding (q.v.).
1579. Gosson, School of Abuses [Arber], 66. What stuffe is this?
1701. Farquhar, Sir Harry Wildair, iii. 1. Sir Harry. There is a repose, I see, in the next room. Lady Lure. Unnatural stuff! Sir Harry. . . . As fulsome as a sack-posset.
1725. Bailey, Erasmus, 1. 278. A Deal of such stuff they sung to the deaf Ocean.
1770. Foote, Lame Lover [Oliphant, New Eng., ii. 184. Some is pronounced to be nonsense and stuff; here we transpose].
1802. W. Taylor, Roberds, Men., i. 425. If these topics be insufficient habitually to supply what compositors call the requisite stuffing, recourse is to be had to amusive anecdotes.
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge], 109. If they commended a piece I was ravished . . . but suppose they pronounced it bad? why, then I maintained that it was infernal stuff.
1823. Bee, Dict. Turf, s.v. Stuff. . . . Ridiculous or deceitful talk . . . if meant to harm another . . . is bloody stuff. She hearkened to his stuff, and got ruinated. . . . Bawdry is stuff, that's certain.
1853. Taylor, Still Waters, i. You'll allow me to observe it's anything but stuff and nonsense. . . . I have not paid a farthing of the money yet. . . .
1899. Whiteing, John St., xix. It's all stuff to say Sally's shoulders are too much loaded.
5. (prison).—Tobacco.
6. (American).—(a) A simpleton, a weakling; and (b) a respectable citizen (thieves').
7. (legal).—A Junior Counsel: as distinguished from silk (q.v.): also STUFF-GOWN.
1903. Pall Mall Gas., 19 Feb., i. 2. 'Silk and stuff' [Title of Legal Column].
Verb. (colloquial).—To gorge; TO WOLF (q.v.).
1809. Malkin, Gil Blas [Routledge]; 31. My drinking kept pace with my eating, and when I could stuff no longer, I went to bed.
1838. Beckett, Paradise Lost, 58. He eat as long as he could stuff.
1868. W. S. Gilbert, Etiquette. He longed to lay him down upon the shelly bed, and stuff; He had often eaten oysters, but had never had enough.
TO STUFF A BALLOT-BOX, verb. phr. (American political).—To tamper with returns by the surreptitious introduction into the ballot-box of bogus voting papers. Hence stuffer = a cheating teller.
Stuffer. See Heeler, quot. 1888, and Stuff.
Stuffing. See Knock and Stuff, sense 4.
Stuffy, adj. (American).—1. Angry, sulky, obstinate.
2. (colloquial).—Close; airless; malodorous.
Stuling-ken. See Stall, subs. 5.
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