What's the difference between
and
Enter two words to compare and contrast their definitions, origins, and synonyms to better understand how those words are related.

Sore vs Stiff - What's the difference?

sore | stiff |

As nouns the difference between sore and stiff

is that sore is while stiff is an average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education, often a working stiff''''' or ''lucky '''stiff .

As an adjective stiff is

of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible.

As a verb stiff is

to fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.

sore

English

(wikipedia sore)

Adjective

(er)
  • Causing pain or discomfort; painfully sensitive.
    • Her feet were sore from walking so far.
  • Sensitive; tender; easily pained, grieved, or vexed; very susceptible of irritation.
  • * Tillotson
    • Malice and hatred are very fretting and vexatious, and apt to make our minds sore and uneasy.
  • Dire; distressing.
    • The school was in sore need of textbooks, theirs having been ruined in the flood.
  • (informal) Feeling animosity towards someone; annoyed or angered.
    • Joe was sore at Bob for beating him at checkers.
  • (obsolete) Criminal; wrong; evil.
    • (Shakespeare)

    Derived terms

    * sight for sore eyes * sorely * soreness * sore point

    Adverb

    (-)
  • (lb) Very, excessively, extremely (of something bad).
  • :
  • *
  • *:Orion hit a rabbit once; but though sore wounded it got to the bury, and, struggling in, the arrow caught the side of the hole and was drawn out. Indeed, a nail filed sharp is not of much avail as an arrowhead; you must have it barbed, and that was a little beyond our skill. Ikey the blacksmith had forged us a spearhead after a sketch from a picture of a Greek warrior; and a rake-handle served as a shaft.
  • Sorely.
  • *1919 , (Edgar Rice Burroughs), Jungle Tales of Tarzan
  • *:[… they] were often sore pressed to follow the trail at all, and at best were so delayed that in the afternoon of the second day, they still had not overhauled the fugitive.

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • An injured, infected, inflamed or diseased patch of skin.
    • They put ointment and a bandage on the sore .
  • Grief; affliction; trouble; difficulty.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • I see plainly where his sore lies.
  • A group of ducks on land. (See also: sord).
  • A young hawk or falcon in its first year.
  • A young buck in its fourth year.

    • Verb

  • mutilate the legs or feet of (a horse) in order to induce a particular gait in the animal.

    • Derived terms

    * soring

    See also

    * blister * lesion * ulcer

    Anagrams

    * ----

    stiff

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • 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.

    • Quotations

    * (English Citations of "stiff")

    Derived terms

    * stiffy

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education, often a working stiff''''' or ''lucky '''stiff .
    • 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.
  • A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.
    • She convinced the stiff to go to her hotel room, where her henchman was waiting to rob him.
  • (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.

    • See also

    * bindlestiff * See also ,

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.
    • Realizing he had forgotten his wallet, he stiffed the taxi driver when the cab stopped for a red light.
  • * 1946 , William Foote Whyte, Industry and Society , page 129
    • 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…].
  • * 1992 , Stephen Birmingham, Shades of Fortune , page 451
    • 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.
  • * 2007 , Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before , page 154
    • Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.

    Anagrams

    *