different between secure vs stiff

English

Alternative forms

• secuer (obsolete)

Etymology

Borrowed from Latin securus (“of persons, free from care, quiet, easy; in a bad sense, careless, reckless; of things, tranquil, also free from danger, safe, secure”), from se- (“without”) + cura (“care”); see cure. Doublet of sure and the now obsolete or dialectal sicker (“certain, safe”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /s??kj??(?)/, /s??kj??(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /s??kj??/, /s??kj?/, /s??kj??/
• Rhymes: -??(?)
• Hyphenation: se?cure

Adjective

secure (comparative securer or more secure, superlative securest or most secure)

1. Free from attack or danger; protected.
2. Free from the danger of theft; safe.
3. Free from the risk of eavesdropping, interception or discovery; secret.
4. Free from anxiety or doubt; unafraid.

   • But thou, secure of soul, unbent with woes.

5. Firm and not likely to fail; stable.
6. Free from the risk of financial loss; reliable.
7. Confident in opinion; not entertaining, or not having reason to entertain, doubt; certain; sure; commonly used with of.
8. (obsolete) Overconfident; incautious; careless.
9. Certain to be achieved or gained; assured.

Antonyms

• insecure

Hyponyms

Derived terms

• securely

Related terms

• security

Translations

Verb

secure (third-person singular simple present secures, present participle securing, simple past and past participle secured)

1. To make safe; to relieve from apprehensions of, or exposure to, danger; to guard; to protect.

   • I spread a cloud before the victor's sight, / Sustained the vanquished, and secured his flight.

2. To put beyond hazard of losing or of not receiving; to make certain; to assure; frequently with against or from, or formerly with of.

   to secure a creditor against loss; to secure a debt by a mortgage

   • 1831, Thomas Dick, The Philosophy of Religion

     It secures its possessor of eternal happiness.

3. To make fast; to close or confine effectually; to render incapable of getting loose or escaping.

   to secure a prisoner; to secure a door, or the hatches of a ship

4. To get possession of; to make oneself secure of; to acquire certainly.

   to secure an estate

   • 2014, Jamie Jackson, "Ángel di María says Manchester United were the ‘only club’ after Real", The Guardian, 26 August 2014:

     With the Argentinian secured United will step up their attempt to sign a midfielder and, possibly, a defender in the closing days of the transfer window. Juventus’s Arturo Vidal, Milan’s Nigel de Jong and Ajax’s Daley Blind, who is also a left-sided defensive player, are potential targets.
5. (transitive, obsolete) To plight or pledge.

Derived terms

• securement

Translations

Further reading

• secure in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• secure in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.

Anagrams

• Creuse, Rescue, cereus, ceruse, cursee, recuse, rescue, secuer

Italian

Adjective

secure

1. feminine plural of securo

Latin

Etymology 1

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /se?ku?.re/, [s???ku???]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /se?ku.re/, [s??ku???]

Noun

sec?re

1. ablative singular of sec?ris

Etymology 2

securus +? -?

Pronunciation

• (Classical) IPA^(key): /se??ku?.re?/, [s?e??ku??e?]
• (Ecclesiastical) IPA^(key): /se?ku.re/, [s??ku???]

Adverb

s?c?r? (comparative s?c?rius, superlative s?c?rissim?)

1. carelessly
2. fearlessly
3. quietly

References

• secure in Charlton T. Lewis and Charles Short (1879) A Latin Dictionary, Oxford: Clarendon Press
• secure in Charlton T. Lewis (1891) An Elementary Latin Dictionary, New York: Harper & Brothers
• secure in Gaffiot, Félix (1934) Dictionnaire illustré Latin-Français, Hachette

Romanian

Alternative forms

• s?cure (archaic)

Etymology

From Latin sec?ris, sec?rem. Compare Italian scure.

Noun

secure f (plural securi)

1. axe, hatchet
2. battle axe, halberd

Declension

Synonyms

• topor

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