a. [f. STUFF sb.1 + -Y.]
† 1. Full of stuff or substance. lit. and fig. Obs.
1551–2. Act 5 & 6 Edw. VI., c. 6 § 3. The good perfecte and stuffy makinge of the same Clothe.
1611. Cotgr., Substantieux, substantiall, stuffie.
1620. T. Granger, Div. Logike, 69. By amplifications, and illustrations an oration is made stuffie, and fatted.
1642. Fuller, Holy & Prof. St., V. xviii. (1652), 479. A mighty fire was made, and … (as if that pure Element of it self had been too fine and slender effectually to torment him) they made the flame more stiffe and stuffie, by the mixture of pitch and brimstone.
a. 1656. Vines, Lord’s-Supp., v. (1657), 64. This Sacrament of the Gospel is an after Supper modicum, full of spiritual signification, but not so stuffie for outward matter, that [etc.].
1667. W. Cavendish, New Meth. Dressing Horses, 62. They … are to be Short from the Head to the Croup, and Stuffy.
2. Of a room, building, etc.: Ill-ventilated, close. Of the air: Wanting in freshness, oppressive to the lungs and head. Of persons: Addicted to living in stuffy conditions.
1831. Lady Granville, Lett., 21 Feb. (1894), II. 89. In the evening I shall have a stuffy drum.
1853. Lytton, Ny Novel, V. xi. I do believe the English are the stuffiest people! Look at their four-post bedsteads!… not a house with a ventilator!
1855. E. Forbes, Lit. Papers, vii. 190. He remains too long in the thick and staffy atmosphere of town clubs and libraries.
1888. Mrs. H. Ward, R. Elsmere, I. I. 10. I don’t like stuffy cottages.
1904. F. Lynde, Grafters, ii. 14. The stuffy little law office which had been his father’s.
b. transf. Lacking in freshness, interest or smartness.
1843. Froude, Nemesis of Faith, ii. Do not write me cold stuffy letters about my state of mind.
1900. C. Hyne, Filibusters, xxii. 318. In the waist below us, that stuffy little person the owner of the Clarindella was shedding tears of joy as his eyes gloated over his re-found treasure.
1904. [C’tess. Arnim], Adv. Eliz. in Rügen, 132. In that sun-flecked place … how could I be seriously interested in stuffy indoor questions such as the equality of the sexes?
1909. Mrs. H. Ward, Daphne, iii. 56. Listening to a stuffy debate in the Senate.
3. Of persons: Affected with a sensation of stoppage or obstruction in the organs of breathing, Said also of the sensation.
1847. Fr. A. Kemble, Later Life, III. 290. If you are old and stiff, I am fat, stuffy, puffy, and old.
1871. C. Gibbon, Lack of Gold, xviii. Her head was stuffed, her nose was stuffed, and she felt altogether ‘stuffy’ and uncomfortable.
1898. Allbutt’s Syst. Med., V. 287. At two or three in the morning he suddenly awakes with a stuffy feeling in his chest.
b. Of the voice: Muffled.
1889. Lynde Palmer, in Harper’s Mag., Sept., 548/2. Her own stuffy voice, interspersed with the familiar coughs and gasps.
4. U.S. colloq. Angry, sulky.
1825. J. Neal, Bro. Jonathan, I. 106. Don’t care for you,… with all your stuffy looks.
1898. Kipling, Fleet in Being, vi. 77. They never growl at us or get stuffy.
