different between load vs stuff

English

Etymology

The sense of “burden” first arose in the 13th century as a secondary meaning of Middle English lode, loade, which had the main significance of “way, course, journey”, from Old English l?d (“course, journey; way, street, waterway; leading, carrying; maintenance, support”) (ultimately from Proto-Germanic *laid? (“leading, way”), Proto-Indo-European *leyt- (“to go, go forth, die”), cognate with Middle Low German leide (“entourage, escort”), German Leite (“line, course, load”), Swedish led (“way, trail, line”), Icelandic leið (“way, course, route”)).As such, load is a doublet of lode, which has preserved the older meaning.

Most likely, the semantic extension of the Middle English substantive arose by conflation with the (etymologically unrelated) verb lade; however, Middle English lode occurs only as a substantive; the transitive verb load (“to charge with a load”) is recorded only in the 16th century (frequently in Shakespeare),and (except for the participle laden) has largely supplanted lade in modern English.

Pronunciation

• (General American) IPA^(key): /lo?d/
• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /l??d/
  • Homophones: lode, lowed
• Rhymes: -??d

Noun

load (plural loads)

1. A burden; a weight to be carried.

2. (figuratively) A worry or concern to be endured, especially in the phrase a load off one's mind.

   • Our life's a load.

   • 2005, Coldplay, Green Eyes

     I came here with a load and it feels so much lighter, now I’ve met you.

3. A certain number of articles or quantity of material that can be transported or processed at one time.

4. A quantity of washing put into a washing machine for a wash cycle.

5. (in combination) Used to form nouns that indicate a large quantity, often corresponding to the capacity of a vehicle
6. (often in the plural, colloquial) A large number or amount.

7. The volume of work required to be performed.

8. (engineering) The force exerted on a structural component such as a beam, girder, cable etc.

9. (electrical engineering) The electrical current or power delivered by a device.

10. (engineering) A resistive force encountered by a prime mover when performing work.
11. (electrical engineering) Any component that draws current or power from an electrical circuit.

12. A unit of measure for various quantities.
    • 1866, James Edwin Thorold Rogers, A History of Agriculture and Prices in England, Volume 1, p. 172:

      If this load equals its modern representative, it contains 18 cwt. of dry, 19 of new hay.

13. The viral load
14. A very small explosive inserted as a gag into a cigarette or cigar.
15. The charge of powder for a firearm.
16. (obsolete) Weight or violence of blows.
17. (vulgar, slang) The contents (e.g. semen) of an ejaculation.
    • 2006, John Patrick, Barely Legal, page 102

      Already, Robbie had dumped a load into his dad, and now, before my very eyes, was Alan's own cock lube seeping out

    • 2009, John Butler Wanderlust, page 35

      It felt so good, I wanted to just keep going until I blew a load down his throat, but I hadn't even seen his ass yet, and I sure didn't want to come yet.

18. (euphemistic) Nonsense; rubbish.

19. (computing) The process of loading something, i.e. transferring it into memory or over a network, etc.
    • 2009, Daniel Page, A Practical Introduction to Computer Architecture (page 614)

      This description represents a form of delay slot: the load operation takes some time to complete, say n cycles. Thus, the value loaded only becomes valid n cycles after the load seems to have executed and can therefore only be read after then.

Synonyms

• (unspecific heavy weight to be carried): charge, freight
• (unit of lead): fodder, fother, cartload, carrus, charrus
• (the contents of one's ejaculation): cumwad, wad

Hyponyms

• (¹?₁₂ cartload of wool & for smaller divisions): wey
• (¹?₃₀ cartload of lead & for smaller divisions): fotmal
• (¹?₃₆ cartload of straw or hay & for smaller divisions): truss

Derived terms

• see Category:English words derived from: load (noun)

Translations

Verb

load (third-person singular simple present loads, present participle loading, simple past loaded, past participle loaded or (archaic) loaden)

1. (transitive) To put a load on or in (a means of conveyance or a place of storage).

2. (transitive) To place in or on a conveyance or a place of storage.

3. (intransitive) To put a load on something.

4. (intransitive) To receive a load.

5. (intransitive) To be placed into storage or conveyance.

6. (transitive) To fill (a firearm or artillery) with munition.

7. (transitive) To insert (an item or items) into an apparatus so as to ready it for operation, such as a reel of film into a camera, sheets of paper into a printer etc.

8. (transitive) To fill (an apparatus) with raw material.

9. (intransitive) To be put into use in an apparatus.}}

10. (transitive, computing) To read (data or a program) from a storage medium into computer memory.

11. (intransitive, computing) To transfer from a storage medium into computer memory.

12. (transitive, baseball) To put runners on first, second and third bases

13. (transitive) To tamper with so as to produce a biased outcome.

14. (transitive) To ask or adapt a question so that it will be more likely to be answered in a certain way.
15. (transitive) To encumber with something negative, to place as an encumbrance.

16. (transitive) To provide in abundance.

17. (transitive) To weight (a cane, whip, etc.) with lead or similar.
18. (transitive, archaic, slang) To adulterate or drug.

19. (transitive, archaic) To magnetize.

    (Can we find and add a quotation of Prior to this entry?)

Derived terms

• See Category:English words derived from: load (verb)
• carbo-load
• load up
• reload

Translations

References

Anagrams

• -adol, -adol-, Aldo, alod, odal

Cebuano

Etymology

Borrowed from English load.

Noun

load

1. prepaid phone credit

Verb

load

1. to top up or purchase phone credits

Estonian

Noun

load

1. nominative plural of luba

Spanish

Verb

load

1. (Spain) Informal second-person plural (vosotros or vosotras) affirmative imperative form of loar.

English

Etymology

From Middle English stuffen (“to equip, furnish”), from Old French estoffer ("to provide what is necessary, equip, stuff"; > French étoffer and étouffer), from Frankish *stopf?n, *stopp?n (“to cram, plug, stuff”), from Proto-Germanic *stupp?n? (“to clog up, block, fill”). Cognate with Old High German stoff?n, stopf?n (“to plug, stuff”), Old English stoppian (“to stop up, close”) and Albanian shtyp (“to press, squeeze, stuff”). Compare Dutch stof, and German Stoff. More at stop.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Noun

stuff (usually uncountable, plural stuffs)

1. (informal) Miscellaneous items or objects; (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.

   1. (obsolete, uncountable) Furniture; goods; domestic vessels or utensils.
      • 1630, John Hayward, The Life and Raigne of King Edward VI,

        He took away locks, and gave away the king's stuff.

2. (informal) Unspecified things or matters.

3. The tangible substance that goes into the makeup of a physical object — as for example breadstuff into bread, or (more figuratively) the right stuff into an astronaut.

   Synonyms: matter, ingredients, constituents; see also Thesaurus:substance

   • 1697, John Davies, A Poem on the Immortality of the Soul

     The workman on his stuff his skill doth show, / And yet the stuff gives not the man his skill.
   1. (archaic) A material for making clothing; any woven textile, but especially a woollen fabric.
      • 1857, The National Magazine (volumes 10-11, page 350)

        "And you can buy a dress for your wife off this piece of stuff," said Lisetta, who had always an eye to business.

      • 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.

   2. (archaic) Boards used for building.
   3. Abstract/figurative substance or character.
      • c.1599, William Shakespeare, Julius Caesar, Act 3, scene 2, 91–94:

        When that the poor have cried, Caesar hath wept; / Ambition should be made of sterner stuff

      • c.1610, William Shakespeare, The Tempest, Act 4, scene 1, 156–157:

        We are such stuff / As dreams are made on

   4. Paper stock ground ready for use. When partly ground, it is called half stuff.

      (Can we find and add a quotation of Knight to this entry?)

4. (informal) Used as placeholder, usually for material of unknown type or name.

   Synonyms: doodad, thingamabob; see also Thesaurus:thingy
5. (slang) Narcotic drugs, especially heroin.

   Synonyms: dope, gear; see also Thesaurus:recreational drug

   • 1947, William Burroughs, letter, 11 March:

     For some idiotic reason the bureaucrats are more opposed to tea than to stuff.

   • 1975, Mary Sanches, Ben G. Blount, Sociocultural Dimensions of Language Use (page 47)

     For example, one addict would crack shorts (break and enter cars) and usually obtain just enough stolen goods to buy stuff and get off just before getting sick.

6. (obsolete) A medicine or mixture; a potion.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Shakespeare to this entry?)

7. (obsolete) Refuse or worthless matter; hence, also, foolish or irrational language; nonsense; trash.

   Synonyms: garbage, rubbish; see also Thesaurus:trash

   • Anger would indite / Such woeful stuff as I or Shadwell write.
8. (nautical) A melted mass of turpentine, tallow, etc., with which the masts, sides, and bottom of a ship are smeared for lubrication.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ham. Nav. Encyc to this entry?)

9. (slang, criminal argot, dated) Money.

Usage notes

• The textile sense is increasingly specialized and sounds dated in everyday contexts. In the UK & Commonwealth it designates the cloth from which legal and academic gowns are made, except for the gowns of Queen's/King's/State Counsel, which are (often in contradistinction) made of silk.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

stuff (third-person singular simple present stuffs, present participle stuffing, simple past and past participle stuffed)

1. (transitive) To fill by packing or crowding something into; to cram with something; to load to excess.

   I'm going to stuff this pillow with feathers.

   • Lest the gods, for sin, / Should with a swelling dropsy stuff thy skin.

2. (transitive) To fill a space with (something) in a compressed manner.
   • 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.
3. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this redundant sense?) (transitive, cooking) To fill with seasoning.

4. (transitive) To load goods into (a container) for transport.
5. (transitive, used in the passive) To sate.

6. (takes a reflexive pronoun) To eat, especially in a hearty or greedy manner.

   Synonyms: fill one's face, feed one's face, stuff one's face

   She sits on the sofa all day, watching TV and stuffing herself with cream buns.

7. (transitive, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To break; to destroy.

8. (transitive, vulgar, Britain, Australia, New Zealand) To sexually penetrate.

   Synonyms: fuck, root, screw

   His wife came home early and found him on the couch stuffing the maid.

9. (transitive, mildly vulgar, often imperative) Used to contemptuously dismiss or reject something. See also stuff it.
10. (informal) To heavily defeat or get the better of.

    Mudchester Rovers were stuffed 7-0 in the semi-final.

    They totally stuffed us in that business deal.

11. (transitive) To cut off another competitor in a race by disturbing his projected and committed racing line (trajectory) by an abrupt manoeuvre.

12. To preserve a dead bird or other animal by filling its skin.
13. (transitive) To obstruct, as any of the organs; to affect with some obstruction in the organs of sense or respiration.
14. (Should we delete⁽⁺⁾ this redundant sense?) (transitive) To form or fashion by packing with the necessary material.
    • 1724, Jonathan Swift, Drapier's Letters, 5

      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.

15. (transitive, dated) To crowd with facts; to cram the mind of; sometimes, to crowd or fill with false or idle tales or fancies.
16. (transitive, computing) To compress (a file or files) in the StuffIt format, to be unstuffed later.

Derived terms

Translations

References

• stuff at OneLook Dictionary Search
• stuff in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Tuffs, tuffs