different between rooted vs stiff

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /??u?t?d/, /??t?d/
• Homophone: routed (some pronunciations)

Adjective

rooted (comparative more rooted, superlative most rooted)

1. Having roots, or certain type of roots.

2. Fixed in one position; immobile; unable to move.

   She stayed rooted in place.

   • 2002, Peter Loizos, Chapter Two: Misconceiving refugees?, Renos K. Papadopoulos (editor), Therapeutic Care for Refugees: No Place Like Home, page 54,

     Those with fewest attachments or obligations may be most vulnerable to transitions from a more rooted life, before flight, to the new as-yet unrooted or uprooted life.
3. (figuratively) Ingrained, as through repeated use; entrenched; habitual or instinctive.
   • 1782 May, Isaac Kimber, Edward Kimber (editors), The Link-Boy, The London Magazine, or, Gentleman?s Monthly Intelligencer, Volume 51, page 205,

     He will immediately break in on their mo?t rooted prejudices ; and with a kind of malignant ?atisfaction hack their darling notions with un?paring rigour and unblu?hing in?olence.

   • 1985, Anthony Hyman, Charles Babbage: Pioneer Of The Computer, page 32,

     The greater part of his property he has acquired himself during years of industry ; but with it he has acquired the most rooted habits of suspicion.

   • 2011, William P. Ryan, Working from the Heart: A Therapist?s Guide to Heart-Centered Psychotherapy, page 47,

     With other experiences added on top, the feeling state becomes more entrenched, more rooted.

4. (figuratively, usually with "in") Having a basic or fundamental connection (to a thing); based, originating (from).
   • 1979, Edward Digby Baltzell, Puritan Boston and Quaker Philadelphia, page 280,

     Proper Philadelphians, especially before they became Episcopalians, and the unfashionable branches of their families to this day are surely more rooted in Westtown than St. Paul?s, the fashionable favorite.

   • 1997, William E. Reiser, To Hear God?s Word, Listen to the World: The Liberation of Spirituality, page 12,

     For what is gradually taking hold, I think, is a way of drawing near to God that is far more rooted in history and far more rooted in the gospel than we have been accustomed to.

   • 2008, Michael Allen Gillespie, The Theological Origins of Modernity, page 93,

     This form of humanism posed a greater danger to the monks and clerics than Italian humanism because it was less extravagant, less pagan, and more rooted in an ideal of Christian charity that the church at least nominally shared.

5. (mathematics, graph theory, of a tree or graph) Having a root.
6. (slang) In trouble or in strife, screwed.

   I am absolutely rooted if Ferris finds out about this

7. (Australia, New Zealand, slang) Broken, damaged, non-functional.

   I'm going to have to call a mechanic, my car's rooted.

8. (computing, not comparable) Having a root (superuser) account that has been compromised.

   You are rooted. All your base are belong to us.

Derived terms

• rootedly
• rootedness
• unrooted

Translations

Verb

rooted

1. simple past tense and past participle of root

English

Etymology

From Middle English stiff, stiffe, stif, from Old English st?f, from Proto-Germanic *st?faz (compare West Frisian stiif,Dutch stijf, Norwegian Bokmål stiv, German steif), from Proto-Indo-European *steypós (compare Latin st?pes, st?p?, from which English stevedore).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /st?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Adjective

stiff (comparative stiffer, superlative stiffest)

1. (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.

2. (figuratively, of policies and rules and their application and enforcement) Inflexible; rigid.
3. (of a person) Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.
4. (colloquial) Harsh, severe.
5. (of muscles or parts of the body) Painful as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.

6. Potent.

7. Dead, deceased.
8. (of a penis) Erect.
9. (cooking, of whipping cream or egg whites) Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.

   beat the egg whites until they are stiff

10. (mathematics) Of an equation: for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.
11. (nautical) Keeping upright.

Quotations

• For quotations using this term, see Citations:stiff.

Derived terms

• bored stiff, scared stiff
• stiff-lipped, stiff upper lip
• stiffy

Translations

Noun

stiff (countable and uncountable, plural stiffs)

1. (slang) 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.

2. (slang) 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.

3. (slang) A cadaver; a dead person.
4. (slang) A flop; a commercial failure.
   • 1994, Andy Dougan, The actors' director: Richard Attenborough behind the camera (page 63)

     If the movie was a stiff it wasn't any of their specific faults. They were all in it together and they were jobbed in and jobbed out for two weeks and gone and they got a pile of money for their efforts.

   • 2016, Ralph J. Gleason, Toby Gleason, Music in the Air: The Selected Writings of Ralph J. Gleason

     They never did sell any records. I don't mean they didn't sell 100,000. I mean they didn't sell 5000. Total. National. Coast-to-coast. The record was a stiff.

5. (US, slang) A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.
6. (US, slang, by extension) A customer who does not leave a tip.
7. (blackjack) Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.
8. (finance, slang) Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.
9. (prison slang) A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

References

• (prison slang: a note or letter): 2015, Eric Partridge, A Dictionary of the Underworld: British and American (page 688); 2015, Noel 'Razor' Smith, The Criminal Alphabet: An A-Z of Prison Slang

See also

• bindlestiff
• See also Thesaurus:corpse, Thesaurus:body

Translations

Derived terms

• do a bit of stiff
• working stiff

Verb

stiff (third-person singular simple present stiffs, present participle stiffing, simple past and past participle stiffed)

1. 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…].

2. to cheat someone
   • 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.

3. to tip ungenerously
   • 2007, Mary Higgins Clark, I Heard That Song Before, page 154

     Then he stiffed the waiter with a cheap tip.

Translations

Anagrams

• TIFFs, tiffs

Middle English

Adjective

stiff

1. Alternative form of stif

Adverb

stiff

1. Alternative form of stif