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Supple vs Stiff - What's the difference?

supple | stiff |

As adjectives the difference between supple and stiff

is that supple is pliant, flexible, easy to bend while stiff is of an object, rigid, hard to bend, inflexible.

As verbs the difference between supple and stiff

is that supple is to make or become supple while stiff is to fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.

As a noun stiff is

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

supple

English

Adjective

(er)
  • pliant, flexible, easy to bend
  • lithe and agile when moving and bending
  • supple''' joints; '''supple fingers
  • compliant; yielding to the will of others
  • a supple horse
  • * John Locke
  • If punishment makes not the will supple , it hardens the offender.

    Verb

  • To make or become supple.
  • * Dryden
  • The stones suppled into softness as they fell.
  • * Spenser
  • The flesh therewith she suppled and did steep.
  • To make compliant, submissive, or obedient.
  • * John Locke
  • a mother persisting till she had bent her daughter's mind and suppled her will
  • * Barrow
  • They should supple our stiff willfulness.

    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.
  • 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

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