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Stuff vs Gather - What's the difference?

stuff | gather |

In nautical terms the difference between stuff and gather

is that stuff is a melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication while gather is to haul in; to take up.

As nouns the difference between stuff and gather

is that stuff is miscellaneous items; things; (with possessive) personal effects while gather is a plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.

As verbs the difference between stuff and gather

is that stuff is to fill by crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess while gather is to collect; normally separate things.

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

    gather

    English

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To collect; normally separate things.
  • I've been gathering ideas from the people I work with.
    She bent down to gather the reluctant cat from beneath the chair.
  • # Especially, to harvest food.
  • We went to gather some blackberries from the nearby lane.
  • # To accumulate over time, to amass little by little.
  • Over the years he'd gathered a considerable collection of mugs.
  • # To congregate, or assemble.
  • People gathered round as he began to tell his story.
  • #* Tennyson
  • Tears from the depth of some divine despair / Rise in the heart, and gather to the eyes.
  • # To grow gradually larger by accretion.
  • #* Francis Bacon
  • Their snowball did not gather as it went.
  • To bring parts of a whole closer.
  • She gathered the shawl about her as she stepped into the cold.
  • # (sewing) To add pleats or folds to a piece of cloth, normally to reduce its width.
  • A gown should be gathered around the top so that it will remain shaped.
  • # (knitting) To bring stitches closer together.
  • Be careful not to stretch or gather your knitting.
  • If you want to emphasise the shape, it is possible to gather the waistline.
  • # (architecture) To bring together, or nearer together, in masonry, as for example where the width of a fireplace is rapidly diminished to the width of the flue.
  • # (nautical) To haul in; to take up.
  • to gather the slack of a rope
  • To infer or conclude; to know from a different source.
  • From his silence, I gathered that things had not gone well.
    I gather from Aunty May that you had a good day at the match.
  • (intransitive, medicine, of a boil or sore) To be filled with pus
  • Salt water can help boils to gather and then burst.
  • (glassblowing) To collect molten glass on the end of a tool.
  • To gain; to win.
  • * Dryden
  • He gathers ground upon her in the chase.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A plait or fold in cloth, made by drawing a thread through it; a pucker.
  • The inclination forward of the axle journals to keep the wheels from working outward.
  • The soffit or under surface of the masonry required in gathering. See gather (transitive verb).
  • (glassblowing) A blob of molten glass collected on the end of a blowpipe.
  • Derived terms

    * gathering iron