different between pack vs stuff

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pæk/, [p?æk]
• Rhymes: -æk

Etymology 1

From Middle English pak, pakke, from Old English pæcca and/or Middle Dutch pak, packe; both ultimately from Proto-Germanic *pakkô (“bundle, pack”). Cognate with Dutch pak (“pack”), Low German Pack (“pack”), German Pack (“pack”), Swedish packe (“pack”), Icelandic pakka, pakki (“package”).

Noun

pack (plural packs)

1. A bundle made up and prepared to be carried; especially, a bundle to be carried on the back, but also a load for an animal, a bale.

2. A number or quantity equal to the contents of a pack
3. A multitude.

4. A number or quantity of connected or similar things; a collective.
5. A full set of playing cards

6. The assortment of playing cards used in a particular game.

7. A group of hounds or dogs, hunting or kept together.
   • 2005, John D. Skinner and Christian T. Chimimba, The Mammals of the Southern African Subregion

     African wild dogs hunt by sight, although stragglers use their noses to follow the pack.

8. A wolfpack: a number of wolves, hunting together.
9. A group of people associated or leagued in a bad design or practice; a gang.
10. A group of Cub Scouts.
11. A shook of cask staves.
12. A bundle of sheet iron plates for rolling simultaneously.
13. A large area of floating pieces of ice driven together more or less closely.

14. (medicine) An envelope, or wrapping, of sheets used in hydropathic practice, called dry pack, wet pack, cold pack, etc., according to the method of treatment.
15. (slang): A loose, lewd, or worthless person.
16. (snooker, pool) A tight group of object balls in cue sports. Usually the reds in snooker.
17. (rugby) The forwards in a rugby team (eight in Rugby Union, six in Rugby League) who with the opposing pack constitute the scrum.

Synonyms

(full set of cards): deck

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English pakken, from the noun (see above). Compare Middle Dutch packen (“to pack”), Middle Low German packen (“to pack”).

Verb

pack (third-person singular simple present packs, present participle packing, simple past and past participle packed)

1. (physical) To put or bring things together in a limited or confined space, especially for storage or transport.
   1. (transitive) To make a pack of; to arrange closely and securely in a pack; hence, to place and arrange compactly as in a pack
      • 1712, Joseph Addison, The Spectator Number 275

        strange materials wound up in that shape and texture, and packed together with wonderful art in the several cavities of the skull
   2. (transitive) To fill in the manner of a pack, that is, compactly and securely, as for transportation; hence, to fill closely or to repletion; to stow away within; to cause to be full; to crowd into.
   3. (transitive) To wrap in a wet or dry sheet, within numerous coverings.

   4. (transitive) To make impervious, such as by filling or surrounding with suitable material, or to fit or adjust so as to move without allowing air, water, or steam inside.

   5. (intransitive) To make up packs, bales, or bundles; to stow articles securely for transportation.
   6. (intransitive) To form a compact mass, especially in order for transportation.

   7. (intransitive, of animals) To gather together in flocks, herds, schools or similar groups of animals.

   8. (transitive, historical) To combine (telegraph messages) in order to send them more cheaply as a single transmission.
2. (social) To cheat.
   1. (transitive, card games) To sort and arrange (the cards) in the pack to give oneself an unfair advantage
      • 1733 Alexander Pope, An Essay on Man

        Mighty dukes pack cards for half a crown.

   2. (transitive) To bring together or make up unfairly, in order to secure a certain result.
      • 1687, Francis Atterbury, An answer to some considerations on the spirit of Martin Luther and the original of the Reformation

        The expected council was dwindling into […] a packed assembly of Italian bishops.

   3. (transitive) To contrive unfairly or fraudulently; to plot.
      • 1655, Thomas Fuller, The church-history of Britain

        He lost life […] upon a nice point subtilely devised and packed by his enemies.

   4. (intransitive) To put together for morally wrong purposes; to join in cahoots.
3. (transitive) To load with a pack

4. (transitive, figuratively) to load; to encumber.
5. To move, send or carry.
   1. (transitive) To cause to go; to send away with baggage or belongings; especially, to send away peremptorily or suddenly; – sometimes with off. See pack off.
   2. (transitive, US, chiefly Western US) To transport in a pack, or in the manner of a pack (on the backs of men or animals).
   3. (intransitive) To depart in haste; – generally with off or away.
      • 1723, Jonathan Swift, Stella at Wood-Park:

        Poor Stella must pack off to town.

      • 1842, Alfred Tennyson, Dora:

        You shall pack, / And never more darken my doors again.

   4. (transitive, slang) To carry weapons, especially firearms, on one's person.

6. (transitive, sports, slang) To block a shot, especially in basketball.
7. (intransitive, rugby, of the forwards in a rugby team) To play together cohesively, specially with reference to their technique in the scrum.
8. (intransitive, LGBT, of a drag king, trans man, etc.) To wear a prosthetic penis inside one’s trousers for better verisimilitude.

Synonyms

• (To sort and arrange (the cards) in a pack so as to secure the game unfairly): stack

Antonyms

• (make into a pack): unpack

Derived terms

Translations

French

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /pak/

Noun

pack m (plural packs)

1. pack (item of packaging)
2. pack ice
3. (sports) A rugby team

Middle English

Noun

pack

1. Alternative form of pak

Scots

Adjective

pack

1. intimate; confidential

Spanish

Etymology

From English pack.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?pak/, [?pak]

Noun

pack m (plural packs)

1. pack, package
2. kit, set, bundle
3. (colloquial, euphemistic) sexual photos and videos, paid or not, sent over internet, network social; sexting photos

Swedish

Noun

pack n

1. a group of unwanted people, lower class people, trash
2. stuff, things, luggage; only in the expression pick och pack

Declension

See also

• packa
• paket

Descendants

• ? Finnish: pakka

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