Noun

(en noun)

Something that is representative of all such things in a group.

* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-26, author=(Leo Hickman)

, volume=189, issue=7, page=26, magazine=(The Guardian Weekly) , title= How algorithms rule the world , passage=The use of algorithms in policing is one example of their increasing influence on our lives. And, as their ubiquity spreads, so too does the debate around whether we should allow ourselves to become so reliant on them – and who, if anyone, is policing their use.}}

Something that serves to illustrate or explain a rule.

* {{quote-magazine, year=2013, month=May-June, author= David Van Tassel], [http://www.americanscientist.org/authors/detail/lee-dehaan Lee DeHaan

, title= Wild Plants to the Rescue , volume=101, issue=3, magazine=(American Scientist) , passage=Plant breeding is always a numbers game.

Something that serves as a pattern of behaviour to be imitated (a good example) or not to be imitated (a bad example).

* Bible, (w) xiii, 15

For I have given you an example , that ye should do as I have done to you.

* (John Milton)

I gave, thou sayest, the example ; I led the way.

* 1818 , (Mary Shelley), :

Learn from me, if not by my precepts, then at least by my example, how dangerous is the acquirement of knowledge,

*

, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=4 , passage=The Celebrity, by arts unknown, induced Mrs. Judge Short and two other ladies to call at Mohair on an afternoon when Mr. Cooke was trying a trotter on the track.

A person punished as a warning to others.

* (William Shakespeare)

Hang him; he'll be made an example .

* Bible, x, 6

Now these things were our examples , to the intent that we should not lust after evil things, as they also lusted.

A parallel or closely similar case, especially when serving as a precedent or model.

* (William Shakespeare)

Such temperate order in so fierce a cause / Doth want example .

An instance (as a problem to be solved) serving to illustrate the rule or precept or to act as an exercise in the application of the rule.

Noun

(en-noun)

Miscellaneous items; things; (with possessive) personal effects.

:

*

*: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.

The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object.

*Sir (c.1569-1626)

*:The workman on his stuff' his skill doth show, / And yet the ' stuff gives not the man his skill.

A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.

*1992 , Hilary Mantel, A Place of Greater Safety , Harper Perennial 2007, p.147:

*:She was going out to buy some lengths of good woollen stuff for Louise's winter dresses.

Abstract substance or character.

*c.1599 , (William Shakespeare),

*:When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff

*c.1610 , (William Shakespeare), (The Tempest) ,

*:We are such stuff / As dreams are made on

(lb)

:

*{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild

, title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=3 , passage=It had been his intention to go to Wimbledon, but as he himself said: “Why be blooming well frizzled when you can hear all the results over the wireless.

*{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-03, volume=408, issue=8847, magazine=(The Economist)

, title= Yesterday’s fuel , passage=The dawn of the oil age was fairly recent. Although the stuff was used to waterproof boats in the Middle East 6,000 years ago, extracting it in earnest began only in 1859 after an oil strike in Pennsylvania. The first barrels of crude fetched $18 (around $450 at today’s prices).}}

Substitution for trivial details.

:

(lb) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.

*1947 , William Burroughs, letter, 11 March:

*:For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff .

Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.

*Sir (c.1564-1627)

*:He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff .

(lb) A medicine or mixture; a potion.

:(Shakespeare)

(lb) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash.

*(John Dryden) (1631-1700)

*:Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.

(lb) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.

:

Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff .

:(Knight)