stuffy
/ˈstʌfi
/adjective (stuffier, stuffiest)
1(Of a place) lacking fresh air or ventilation: a stuffy, overcrowded office...
- As Derek quickly entered my room, I felt the cool breeze enter behind him, bringing with it welcome fresh air into my stuffy room.
- Since the room was stuffy and muggy without the air conditioner running all the time, just turning the thing off wasn't an option.
- Bathrooms tend to be quite stuffy places, where even the hint of a bad smell will linger.
Synonyms
airless, close, muggy, sultry, heavy, musty, stale, frowzy;
stifling, suffocating, oppressive;
British frowsty
British informal fuggy
1.1(Of a person’s nose) blocked up and making breathing difficult: inhaling vapour from a bowl of hot water may help to clear a stuffy nose...
- For a portable and convenient inhalant put 1 drop each of the same oils on a tissue or handkerchief and inhale them whenever needed to ease laboured breathing and a stuffy nose.
- One should be on watch for any soreness in the throat, a stuffy nose or congested chest because they are the early symptoms of the onset of disease.
- Common symptoms include a runny and/or stuffy nose, sneezing, sore throat and cough.
Synonyms
blocked, stuffed up, bunged up
2(Of a person) not receptive to new or unusual ideas; conventional and narrow-minded: he was steady and rather stuffy...
- Her children are grown, and want her to marry some old, boring, stuffy man who talks about his aches and pains a lot.
- Kitchen gardeners are very often thought of as stuffy people, patiently planting seeds into precise rows and endlessly digging.
- Then you just have a bunch of stuffy people, made even stuffier by their uncomfortable clothes, wandering around and lying about what a good time they are having.
Synonyms
staid, sedate, sober, stiff, reserved, impersonal, formal, pompous, prim, priggish, fogeyish, strait-laced, conformist, conventional, conservative, old-fashioned, of the old school;
stodgy, boring, dull, dreary, uninteresting
informal square, straight, starchy, fuddy-duddy, stick-in-the-mud, uptight
Derivatives
stuffily
- Those looks provide a rare smartened-up alternative to the boho and gypsy skirts and sandals that seem to have swallowed the high street recently, but without seeming stuffily formal, either.
- They were also the first band to be played on Britain's Radio 1, 2, 3, and 4 all in one week, something quite unheard of in its day for the stuffily run government radio stations.
- ‘We like to save these booths for larger parties,’ a waiter said stuffily.
stuffiness
/ noun ...- A chiming grandfather clock is all that is lacking to complete a scene redolent of a bygone era framed by stuffiness and reserve.
- Architectural projects underlined his power and status, no doubt, but the garden became a refuge, too, from the stuffiness of the formal halls and the clamour of the court.
- Built in 1901, it played host to Edward VII on a number of occasions, and retains an air of exclusivity while at the same time avoiding any sense of stuffiness.