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The Oxford Thesaurus An A-Z Dictionary of Synonyms INTRO ...

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Without the attributions, I'd have trouble telling their stuff<br />

apart.<br />

--v. 6 jam, ram, cram, crowd, compress, pack, press, squeeze,<br />

squash, shove, thrust, force: You couldn't stuff another<br />

handkerchief into that suitcase. 7 line, fill, pack: Stuff the<br />

chicken with the following mixture. 8 overeat, gorge,<br />

overindulge, gormandize, gluttonize, Colloq make a pig or a hog<br />

<strong>of</strong> oneself: <strong>The</strong>y really stuffed themselves at the wedding<br />

reception. 9 stuff up. clog, plug, obstruct, choke, block (up),<br />

stop or US also pack up: Phone the plumber: the drain is<br />

stuffed up again. <strong>The</strong> cold had given her a headache and a<br />

stuffed-up nose.<br />

stuffy adj. 1 close, airless, unventilated, oppressive, stifling,<br />

suffocating, stale, musty, fusty, mouldy, mildewy, muggy, fetid<br />

or foetid, frowzy or frouzy or frowsy, Brit frowsty: It was<br />

stuffy in the ancient tomb. 2 pompous, pedantic,<br />

self-important, self-centred, stodgy, old-fogyish or<br />

old-fogeyish, old-fashioned, strait-laced, staid, conventional,<br />

prim (and proper), priggish, niminy-piminy, stilted, stiff,<br />

rigid, Colloq fuddy-duddy, uptight: What a bore to be trapped<br />

for an entire evening with those stuffy old codgers!<br />

stumble v. 1 falter, blunder, slip, trip, miss one's footing, stagger,<br />

lurch, flounder: Minnie caught her heel in the grating and<br />

stumbled. 2 falter, pause, hesitate, trip, slip, blunder: He<br />

was very nervous and stumbled his way through his speech. 3<br />

stumble on or upon. chance or come or happen on or upon, hit<br />

upon, come or run across, find, discover, encounter, Colloq bump<br />

into: I stumbled on a great new pub when I was out on Saturday.<br />

stumbling-block<br />

n. impediment, obstacle, bar, block, obstruction, hurdle,<br />

hindrance, barrier, difficulty, snag: It was <strong>of</strong>ten labour<br />

unions that proved the stumbling-blocks to technological<br />

progress.<br />

stump n. 1 stub, butt, end: <strong>The</strong> branches were lopped <strong>of</strong>f, leaving<br />

only the stumps.<br />

--v. 2 mystify, confuse, perplex, bewilder, flummox, foil,<br />

puzzle, baffle, confound, dumbfound or dumfound, stop, stymie,

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