Stiff vs Insensitive - What's the difference?
stiff | insensitive | Related terms |
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
Not expressing normal physical feeling
* 1897, Bram Stoker, Dracula
Not expressing normal emotional feelings; cold; tactless; undiplomatic
* 1895, Grant Allen, The British Barbarians
* 1994, Jann Arden, "Insensitive" (song)
Stiff is a related term of insensitive.
As adjectives the difference between stiff and insensitive
is that stiff is of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible while insensitive is not expressing normal physical feeling.As a noun stiff
is an average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education, often a working stiff''''' or ''lucky '''stiff .As a verb stiff
is to fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.stiff
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.
Anagrams
*insensitive
English
Adjective
(en adjective)- It is something like the way dame Nature gathers round a foreign body an envelope of some insensitive tissue which can protect from evil that which it would otherwise harm by contact.
- Somehow, when Bertram Ingledew let it once be felt he did not wish to be questioned on any particular point, even women managed to restrain their curiosity: and he would have been either a very bold or a very insensitive man who would have ventured to continue questioning him any further.
- Oh I really should have known by the time you drove me home, / By the vagueness in your eyes, your casual good-byes, / By the chill in your embrace and the expression on your face, / That told me you might have some advice to give / On how to be insensitive .