Heavy vs Stiff - What's the difference?
heavy | stiff | Related terms |
(of a physical object) Having great weight.
*
, title=(The Celebrity), chapter=2
, passage=Sunning himself on the board steps, I saw for the first time Mr. Farquhar Fenelon Cooke.
(of a topic) Serious, somber.
Not easy to bear; burdensome; oppressive.
* Bible, 1 Sam. v. 6
* Shakespeare
* Wordsworth
(British, slang, dated) Good.
Profound.
(of a rate of flow) High, great.
(slang) Armed.
(music) Louder, more distorted.
(of weather) Hot and humid.
(of a person) Doing the specified activity more intensely than most other people.
(of food) High in fat or protein; difficult to digest.
Of great force, power, or intensity; deep or intense.
* 1918 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Chapter IV
* {{quote-magazine, date=2013-07-20, volume=408, issue=8845, magazine=(The Economist)
, title= Laden to a great extent.
Laden with that which is weighty; encumbered; burdened; bowed down, either with an actual burden, or with grief, pain, disappointment, etc.
* Chapman
* Shakespeare
Slow; sluggish; inactive; or lifeless, dull, inanimate, stupid.
* Shakespeare
* Dryden
* Bible, Is. lix. 1
Impeding motion; cloggy; clayey.
Not raised or leavened.
Having much body or strength; said of wines or spirits.
(obsolete) With child; pregnant.
A villain or bad guy; the one responsible for evil or aggressive acts.
(slang) A doorman, bouncer or bodyguard.
(aviation) A large multi-engined aircraft.
To make heavier.
To sadden.
(Australia, New Zealand, informal) To use power and/or wealth to exert influence on, e.g., governments or corporations; to pressure.
* 1985 , Australian House of Representatives, House of Representatives Weekly Hansard , Issue 11, Part 1,
* 2001 , Finola Moorhead, Darkness More Visible , Spinifex Press, Australia,
* 2005 , David Clune, Ken Turner (editors), The Premiers of New South Wales, 1856-2005 , Volume 3: 1901-2005,
Of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible.
*
*:“A tight little craft,” was Austin’s invariable comment on the matron;. ¶ Near her wandered her husband, orientally bland, invariably affable, and from time to time squinting sideways, as usual, in the ever-renewed expectation that he might catch a glimpse of his stiff , retroussé moustache.
(lb) Of policies and rules and their application and enforcement, inflexible.
Of a person, formal in behavior, unrelaxed.
(lb) Harsh, severe.
:
Of muscles, or parts of the body, painful, as a result of excessive, or unaccustomed exercise.
:
Potent.
:
Dead, deceased.
Of a penis, erect.
An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education, often a working stiff''''' or ''lucky '''stiff .
A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.
(slang) A cadaver, a dead person.
(US) A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.
* 1946 , William Foote Whyte, Industry and Society , page 129
* 1992 , Stephen Birmingham, Shades of Fortune , page 451
* 2007 , Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before , page 154
Heavy is a related term of stiff.
In slang|lang=en terms the difference between heavy and stiff
is that heavy is (slang) a doorman, bouncer or bodyguard while stiff is (slang) a cadaver, a dead person.As adjectives the difference between heavy and stiff
is that heavy is (of a physical object) having great weight or heavy can be having the heaves while stiff is of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible.As nouns the difference between heavy and stiff
is that heavy is a villain or bad guy; the one responsible for evil or aggressive acts while stiff is an average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education, often a working stiff''''' or ''lucky '''stiff .As verbs the difference between heavy and stiff
is that heavy is to make heavier while stiff is to fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.As an adverb heavy
is heavily.heavy
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) hevy, .Adjective
(er)- heavy yokes, expenses, undertakings, trials, news, etc.
- The hand of the Lord was heavy upon them of Ashdod.
- The king himself hath a heavy reckoning to make.
- Sent hither to impart the heavy news.
- The surf was not heavy , and there was no undertow, so we made shore easily, effecting an equally easy landing.
Out of the gloom, passage=[Rural solar plant] schemes are of little help to industry or other heavy users of electricity. Nor is solar power yet as cheap as the grid. For all that, the rapid arrival of electric light to Indian villages is long overdue. When the national grid suffers its next huge outage, as it did in July 2012 when hundreds of millions were left in the dark, look for specks of light in the villages.}}
- The heavy [sorrowing] nobles all in council were.
- A light wife doth make a heavy husband.
- a heavy gait, looks, manners, style, etc.
- a heavy writer or book
- whilst the heavy ploughman snores
- a heavy , dull, degenerate mind
- Neither [is] his ear heavy , that it cannot hear.
- a heavy''' road; a '''heavy soil
- heavy bread
Synonyms
* sweer/swearDerived terms
(heavy) * heavily * heaviness * heavy-armed * heavy artillery * heavy chain * heavy-coated * heavy cream * heavy drinker * heavy-duty * heavy-footed * heavy goods * heavy-handed * heavyhead * heavy-headed * heavy heart * heavy-hearted * heavy hitter * heavy hydrogen * heavy industry * heavy ion * heavyish * heavy-laden * heavy-lift * heavy lifting * heavy metal * heavy oil * heavy particle * heavy roller * heavy sea * heavy-set/heavyset * heavy sink * heavy spar * heavy tail * heavy water * heavyweight * heavy wet * HGV * hot and heavy * semi-heavy * top-heavyNoun
(en-noun)- With his wrinkled, uneven face, the actor always seemed to play the heavy in films.
- A fight started outside the bar but the heavies came out and stopped it.
- The term heavy normally follows the call-sign when used by air traffic controllers.
Verb
- The union was well known for the methods it used to heavy many businesses.
page 1570,
- the Prime Minister sought to evade the simple fact that he heavied Mr Reid to get rid of Dr Armstrong.
page 557,
- But he is on the wrong horse, heavying me. My phone?s tapped. Well, he won?t find anything.
page 421,
- But the next two days of the Conference also produced some very visible lobbying for the succession and apparent heavying of contenders like Brereton, Anderson and Mulock - much of it caught on television.
Etymology 2
Statistics
* 1000 English basic wordsstiff
English
Adjective
(er)Quotations
* (English Citations of "stiff")Derived terms
* stiffyNoun
(en noun)- A Working Stiff' s Manifesto: A Memoir of Thirty Jobs I Quit, Nine That Fired Me, and Three I Can't Remember was published in 2003.
- She convinced the stiff to go to her hotel room, where her henchman was waiting to rob him.
See also
* bindlestiff * See also ,Verb
(en verb)- Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.
- We asked one girl to explain how she felt when she was "stiffed ." She said, You think of all the work you've done and how you've tried to please [them…].
- You see, poor Nonie really was stiffed' by Adolph in his will. He really ' stiffed her , Rose, and I really wanted to right that wrong.
- Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.