Sack vs Stuff - What's the difference?
sack | stuff |
A bag; especially a large bag of strong, coarse material for storage and handling of various commodities, such as potatoes, coal, coffee; or, a bag with handles used at a supermarket, a grocery sack; or, a small bag for small items, a satchel.
The amount a sack holds; also, an archaic or historical measure of varying capacity, depending on commodity type and according to local usage; an old English measure of weight, usually of wool, equal to 13 stone (182 pounds), or in other sources, 26 stone (364 pounds).
* The American sack''' of salt is 215 pounds; the '''sack of wheat, two bushels. — McElrath.
* 1843 , The Penny Cyclopaedia of the Society for the Diffusion of Useful Knowledge , Vol. 27,
* 1882 , , A History of Agriculture and Prices in England , Volume 4,
(uncountable) The plunder and pillaging of a captured town or city.
(uncountable) Loot or booty obtained by pillage.
(American football) A successful tackle of the quarterback. See verb sense3 below .
(baseball) One of the square bases anchored at first base, second base, or third base.
(informal) Dismissal from employment, or discharge from a position, usually as give (someone) the sack' or '''get the sack . ''See verb sense4 below.
(colloquial, US) Bed; usually as hit the sack' or '''in the sack'''. ''See also'' ' sack out .
(dated) (also sacque ) A kind of loose-fitting gown or dress with sleeves which hangs from the shoulders, such as a gown with a , fashionable in the late 17th to 18th century; or, formerly, a loose-fitting hip-length jacket, cloak or cape.
* 1749 , ,
(dated) A sack coat; a kind of coat worn by men, and extending from top to bottom without a cross seam.
(vulgar, slang) The scrotum.
To put in a sack or sacks.
* 1903 , ,
To bear or carry in a sack upon the back or the shoulders.
To plunder or pillage, especially after capture; to obtain spoils of war from.
* 1898 , ,
(American football) To tackle, usually to tackle the offensive quarterback behind the line of scrimmage before he is able to throw a pass.
* 1995 , John Crumpacker and Gwen Knapp, "
(informal) To discharge from a job or position; to fire.
* 1999 , "
(colloquial) In the phrase sack out', to fall asleep. ''See also'' ' hit the sack .
(dated) A variety of light-colored dry wine from Spain or the Canary Islands; also, any strong white wine from southern Europe; sherry.
*
*
* 1610 , , act 2 scene 2
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=
, 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= 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)
To fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.
* Dryden
* 1922 , (Margery Williams), (The Velveteen Rabbit)
To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
* Francis Bacon
(used in the passive) To sate.
(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.
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
To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
* Jonathan Swift
(dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
As nouns the difference between sack and stuff
is that sack is sack; a bag while stuff is living room.sack
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) . (Sense evolution) * “Pillage” senses from the use of sacks in carrying off plunder. From (etyl) . ''See also ransack. American football “tackle” sense from this “plunder, conquer” root. * “Removal from employment” senses attested since 1825; the original formula was “to give (someone) the sack”, likely from the notion of a worker going off with his tools in a sack, or being given such a sack for his personal belongings as part of an expedient severance. Idiom exists earlier in (etyl) (on luy a donné son sac'', 17c.) and (etyl) (iemand den zak geven). English verb in this sense recorded from 1841. Current verb, ''to sack (“to fire”) carries influence from the forceful nature of “plunder, tackle” verb senses. * Slang meaning “bunk, bed” is attested since 1825, originally nautical, likely in reference to sleeping bags. The verb meaning “go to bed” is recorded from 1946.Noun
(en noun)page 202
- Seven pounds make a clove, 2 cloves a stone, 2 stone a tod, 6 1/2 tods a wey, 2 weys a sack, 12 sacks a last. [...] It is to be observed here that a sack is 13 tods, and a tod 28 pounds, so that the sack is 364 pounds.
page 209
- Generally, however, the stone or petra, almost always of 14 lbs., is used, the tod of 28 lbs., and the sack of thirteen stone.
- The sack of Rome.
- He twisted his ankle sliding into the sack at second.
- The boss is gonna give her the sack today.
- He got the sack for being late all the time.
Google Books
- Molly, therefore, having dressed herself out in this sack , with a new laced cap, and some other ornaments which Tom had given her, repairs to church with her fan in her hand the very next Sunday.
- He got passed the ball, but it hit him in the sack .
Synonyms
* (bag) bag, tote, poke (obsolete) * the axe]], pink slip, the boot, the chop, the elbow, one's cards, [[give somebody the heave-ho, the old heave-ho * hay, rack * ballsack, ball sack, nutsackHyponyms
* (bag) bindleDerived terms
* * ballsack, ball sack * bivouac sack * cat in the sack * dub sack * get the sack, give the sack * gunny sack, gunnysack * hacky sack, hackysack * Hacky-Sack, hackeysack, * hit the sack * in the sack * nutsack * sackcloth * sack race * sackful * sacking (n. ) * sad sackVerb
(en verb)- Help me sack the groceries.
- The gold was sacked in moose-hide bags, fifty pounds to the bag
- The barbarians sacked Rome.
- It [a lyre] was part of the spoils which he had taken when he sacked the city of Eetion
Sack-happy defensive line stuns Dolphins", SFGate.com, November 21,
- On third down, the rejuvenated Rickey Jackson stormed in over All-Pro left tackle Richmond Webb to sack Marino yet again for a 2-yard loss.
- He was sacked last September.
Russian media mogul dismisses Yeltsin's bid to sack him", CNN.com, March 5,
- The kids all sacked out before 9:00 on New Year’s Eve.
Synonyms
* loot, ransack * (to remove someone from a job) can, dismiss, fire, lay off, let go, terminate, make redundant, give the axe, give the boot, give (someone) their cards, give the chop]], give the elbow, give the old heave-ho, See also : [[Wikisaurus:lay off * rackDerived terms
* sackable * sacker * sack outEtymology 2
From earlier (wyne)Noun
(en noun)- Will't please your lordship drink a cup of sack'? ...I ne'er drank ' sack in my life...
- Thou art so fat-witted, with drinking of old sack'...let a cup of '''sack''' be my poison...Wherein is he good, but to taste ' sack and drink it?
- How didst thou 'scape? How cam'st thou hither? swear / by this bottle how thou cam'st hither—I escaped upon / a butt of sack , which the sailors heaved overboard, by / this bottle! [...]
Derived terms
* sack-wheyEtymology 3
See also
* (wikipedia "sack") *Anagrams
* *stuff
English
(wikipedia stuff)Noun
(en-noun)George Goodchild
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).}}
Usage notes
* The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts.Verb
(en verb)- She stuffed the turkey for Thanksgiving using her secret stuffing recipe.
- Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.
- 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.
- He stuffed his clothes into the closet and shut the door.
- Put roses into a glass with a narrow mouth, stuffing them close together and they retain smell and colour.
- I’m stuffed after having eaten all that turkey, mashed potatoes and delicious stuffing.
- I got stuffed by that guy on the supermoto going into that turn, almost causing us to crash.
- I'm stuffed , cousin; I cannot smell.
- 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.