He felt, in Fitzgerald's words, "stiff and awkward among these white flannelled, bareheaded youths" and he envied "the savoir-faire with which they strolled".
These aren't posh-talking, emotionally repressed stiffs who use words as instruments of torture.
The word "stiff" in a Ted Hughes poem is said to echo both "fistful" and "splintered".
If Bruce needs a stiff drink, a word of advice or consolation, his old boss will provide it.
It is likely that patients with ankylosing spondylitis interpreted the words "joints stiff" in item 5 as spine stiffness.
Putin's parting words were stiff: "Goodbye, Boris Abramovich", he said, using the formal patronymic.
I could feel the cold, stiff resistance to his words among the passengers, but not a single one of us turned to look at him.
Indeed, when our polls in October asked respondents to come up with a spontaneous one-word description of the vice president, more men than women poked fun at Mr. Gore (24percentto15percentcent), using words like "stiff" and "boring".
His famed coach at Carlisle, Pop Warner, taught his player the technique of "unexpected contact," which Thorpe mastered, where you sometimes fake the defensive player to make him stop moving, "then, wham, you hit him with the hip or stiff arm," in the words of a teammate.
Tomato cans, palookas, bums, stiffs: boxing has myriad words to describe these boxers' singular purpose: to provide more promising fighters a chance to pad their records and enhance their careers.
