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frequently_asked_questions_files/Oxford Thesaurus.pdf

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his wife is as stiff as a poker. 8 stilted, unrelaxed, wooden,<br />

forced, artificial, laboured, pedantic, turgid, formal, prim,<br />

Colloq stuffy: I have always found her writing to be rather<br />

stiff. 9 difficult, hard, steep, uphill, laborious, arduous,<br />

tiring, fatiguing, exhausting, harrowing, toilsome, rigorous,<br />

challenging, Colloq rough, tough: It is quite a stiff climb to<br />

the top of the pyramid of Cheops. That was a stiff homework<br />

assignment. 10 solid, semi-solid, firm, hard, thick, dense,<br />

compact: If you add a bit more water the next time, the jelly<br />

won't get quite so stiff.<br />

--n. 11 corpse, body, cadaver: Barry had to go down to the<br />

morgue to identify some stiff they hauled out of the river. 12<br />

skinflint, miser, Colloq cheapskate, Slang piker, US and<br />

Canadian tightwad: A stiff is a customer who fails to leave a<br />

tip.<br />

stiffen v. 1 thicken, coagulate, clot, harden, jell, set, solidify,<br />

congeal, crystallize: Beat the egg-whites with a whisk until<br />

they stiffen. 2 brace, reinforce, tauten, rigidify, toughen,<br />

strengthen: The weak support was stiffened by means of a steel<br />

bar.<br />

stifle v. 1 suffocate, smother, choke, strangle, throttle, asphyxiate:<br />

The firemen were almost stifled by the smoke from the chemical<br />

fire. 2 choke back, keep or hold back, withhold, repress,<br />

suppress, hold in, restrain, prevent, curb, cover up, control:<br />

I stifled a yawn as John went on about his grandchildren. 3<br />

destroy, crush, demolish, extinguish, stamp out, kill, quash,<br />

silence, stop, check: Under his tyrannical rule all artistic<br />

creativity was stifled for fifty years.<br />

stigma n. brand, (bad) mark, blot, smirch, stain, spot, taint,<br />

blemish, demerit, blot on the escutcheon, Brit blot in one's<br />

copybook: Bankruptcy is no longer the social stigma that it<br />

used to be.<br />

stigmatize<br />

v. brand, mark, scar, blemish, besmirch, sully, disparage,<br />

depreciate, denounce, condemn, calumniate, defame, pillory,<br />

slander: His foul treachery stigmatized his entire family.<br />

still adj. 1 quiet, serene, placid, calm, tranquil, motionless,

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