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Pack vs Stuff - What's the difference?

pack | stuff | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between pack and stuff

is that pack is to cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off while stuff is to form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.

As nouns the difference between pack and stuff

is that pack is a bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back; a load for an animal; a bale, as of goods while stuff is miscellaneous items; things; (with possessive) personal effects.

As verbs the difference between pack and stuff

is that pack is to put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport while stuff is to fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.

pack

English

Noun

(pack) (en noun)
  • A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back; a load for an animal; a bale, as of goods.
  • The horses carried the packs across the plain.
  • A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack; hence, a multitude; a burden.
  • A pack of lies.
  • A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.
  • A full set of playing cards; also, the assortment used in a particular game; as, a euchre pack.
  • We were going to play cards, but nobody brought a pack .
  • A number of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together.
  • * 2005 , John D. Skinner and Christian T. Chimimba, The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion?
  • African wild dogs hunt by sight, although stragglers use their noses to follow the pack .
  • A number of persons associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang;
  • a pack of thieves or knaves.
  • A group of Cub Scouts.
  • A shook of cask staves.
  • A bundle of sheet-iron plates for rolling simultaneously.
  • A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely.
  • The ship had to sail round the pack of ice.
  • An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment.
  • (slang): A loose, lewd, or worthless person.
  • (snooker, pool) A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker.
  • (rugby) The team on the field.
  • Synonyms

    (full set of cards) deck

    Derived terms

    * blister pack * bowl pack * daypack * Duluth pack * eight-pack * expansion pack * fanny pack * froth pack * ice pack * jet pack/jetpack/jet-pack * pack animal * pack ice * pack journalism * pack mentality * pack rat * RAM pack * rocket pack * service pack * six-pack

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (label) To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport.
  • # (label) To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack; to press into close order or narrow compass.
  • #* (Joseph Addison) (1672-1719)
  • strange materials packed up with wonderful art
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Wherethe bones / Of all my buried ancestors are packed .
  • # (label) To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.
  • #*{{quote-book, year=1935, author= George Goodchild
  • , title=Death on the Centre Court, chapter=5 , passage=By one o'clock the place was choc-a-bloc. […] The restaurant was packed , and the promenade between the two main courts and the subsidiary courts was thronged with healthy-looking youngish people, drawn to the Mecca of tennis from all parts of the country.}}
  • # (label) To envelop in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.
  • # (label) To render impervious, as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without giving passage to air, water, or steam.
  • # (label) To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.
  • # (label) To admit of stowage, or of making up for transportation or storage; to become compressed or to settle together, so as to form a compact mass.
  • # (label) To gather in flocks or schools.
  • (label) To cheat, to arrange matters unfairly.
  • # To sort and arrange (the cards) in a pack so as to secure the game unfairly.
  • #* (Alexander Pope) (1688-1744)
  • Mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown.
  • # (label) To bring together or make up unfairly and fraudulently, in order to secure a certain result.
  • #* (Francis Atterbury) (1663-1732)
  • The expected council was dwindling intoa packed assembly of Italian bishops.
  • # (label) To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.
  • #* (Thomas Fuller) (1606-1661)
  • He lost lifeupon a nice point subtilely devised and packed by his enemies.
  • # (label) To unite in bad measures; to confederate for ill purposes; to join in collusion.
  • #* 1599 , (William Shakespeare), (Much Ado About Nothing) ,
  • This naughty man / Shall face to face be brought to Margaret, / Who, I believe, was pack'd in all this wrong, / Hired to it by your brother.
  • (label) To load with a pack; hence, to load; to encumber.
  • * (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • our thighs packed with wax, our mouths with honey
  • To move, send or carry.
  • # (label) To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.
  • #* (William Shakespeare) (1564-1616)
  • Till George be packed with post horse up to heaven.
  • # To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (i. e., on the backs of men or animals).
  • # (label) To depart in haste; – generally with off'' or ''away .
  • #* (Jonathan Swift) (1667–1745)
  • Poor Stella must pack off to town.
  • #* (1809-1892)
  • You shall pack , / And never more darken my doors again.
  • # To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.
  • To block a shot, especially in basketball.
  • To wear a simulated penis inside one’s trousers for better verisimilitude.
  • Synonyms

    * stack

    Antonyms

    * (make into a pack) unpack

    Derived terms

    * pack away * pack fudge * pack heat * pack horse * pack in * pack off * pack on * pack train * pack up * packer

    stuff

    English

    (wikipedia stuff)

    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)
  • Usage notes

    * The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
  • She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret stuffing recipe.
  • * Dryden
  • Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
  • * 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
  • The Rabbit could not claim to be a model of anything, for he didn’t know that real rabbits existed; he thought they were all stuffed with sawdust like himself, and he understood that sawdust was quite out-of-date and should never be mentioned in modern circles.
  • To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
  • He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.
  • * Francis Bacon
  • Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together and they retain smell and colour.
  • (used in the passive) To sate.
  • I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
  • (transitive, British, Australia, New Zealand) To be broken. (rfex)
  • To sexually penetrate. (rfex)
  • To be cut off in a race by having one's projected and committed racing line (trajectory) disturbed by an abrupt manoeuvre by a competitor.
  • I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.
  • To preserve a dead bird or animal by filling its skin.
  • To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
  • * Shakespeare
  • I'm stuffed , cousin; I cannot smell.
  • To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
  • * Jonathan Swift
  • An Eastern king put a judge to death for an iniquitous sentence, and ordered his hide to be stuffed into a cushion, and placed upon the tribunal.
  • (dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
  • Synonyms

    * (to sexually penetrate) fuck, root, screw

    Derived terms

    * * stuff the ballot box * stuffy

    Derived terms

    * made of sterner stuff * stuff one's face * stuff up * stuff-up * stuff you * stuffed up * get stuffed