Prim vs. Stiff — What's the Difference?

Precise or proper to the point of affectation; excessively decorous.

Difficult to bend or fold

Strait-laced; prudish.

Not moving or operating easily or freely; resistant

Neat and trim

Lacking ease or comfort of movement; not limber

To fix (the face or mouth) in a prim expression.

Not liquid, loose, or fluid; thick

To make prim, as in dress or appearance.

Reserved in manner or strict in observing decorum

To assume a prim expression.

Lacking grace or easy charm; very formal

A privet.

Firm, as in purpose; resolute

Prudish, straight-laced

Having a strong, swift, steady force or movement

Formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice

Potent or strong

(dated) To make affectedly precise or proper.

Difficult to deal with, do, or meet

(dated) To dress or act smartly.

Harsh or severe

(plants) privet

Excessively high or onerous

The privet.

(Nautical) Not heeling over much in spite of great wind or the press of the sail.

Formal; precise; affectedly neat or nice; as, prim regularity; a prim person.

In a stiff manner

To deck with great nicety; to arrange with affected preciseness; to prink.

To a complete extent; totally

To dress or act smartly.

A corpse.

Assume a prim appearance;

A person regarded as constrained, priggish, or overly formal.

Contract one's lips;

A drunk.

Dress primly

A person

Affectedly dainty or refined

A hobo; a tramp.

Exaggeratedly proper;

A person who tips poorly.

To tip (someone) inadequately or not at all, as for a service rendered

To cheat (someone) of something owed

To fail to give or supply (something expected or promised).

Rigid; hard to bend; inflexible.

Inflexible; rigid.

Formal in behavior; unrelaxed.

(colloquial) Harsh, severe.

Painful as a result of excessive or unaccustomed exercise.

Potent.

(informal) Dead, deceased.

(of the penis) Erect.

Having a dense consistency; thick; (by extension) Difficult to stir.

Beaten until so aerated that they stand up straight on their own.

(math) Of an equation: for which certain numerical solving methods are numerically unstable, unless the step size is taken to be extremely small.

(nautical) Keeping upright.

(golf) Of a shot: landing so close to the flagstick that it should be very easy to sink the ball with the next shot.

Delivered more forcefully than needed, whether intentionally or accidentally, thus causing legitimate pain to the opponent.

An average person, usually male, of no particular distinction, skill, or education.

(slang) A person who is deceived, as a mark or pigeon in a swindle.

(slang) A cadaver; a dead person.

(slang) A flop; a commercial failure.

A person who leaves (especially a restaurant) without paying the bill.

A customer who does not leave a tip.

(blackjack) Any hard hand where it is possible to exceed 21 by drawing an additional card.

Negotiable instruments, possibly forged.

(prison slang) A note or letter surreptitiously sent by an inmate.

To fail to pay that which one owes (implicitly or explicitly) to another, especially by departing hastily.

To cheat someone

To tip ungenerously.

(nautical) Of the wind, with great force; strongly.

Not easily bent; not flexible or pliant; not limber or flaccid; rigid; firm; as, stiff wood, paper, joints.

Not liquid or fluid; thick and tenacious; inspissated; neither soft nor hard; as, the paste is stiff.

Firm; strong; violent; difficult to oppose; as, a stiff gale or breeze.

Not easily subdued; unyielding; stubborn; obstinate; pertinacious; as, a stiff adversary.

Not natural and easy; formal; constrained; affected; starched; as, stiff behavior; a stiff style.

Harsh; disagreeable; severe; hard to bear.

Bearing a press of canvas without careening much; as, a stiff vessel; - opposed to crank.

Very large, strong, or costly; powerful; as, a stiff charge; a stiff price.

An ordinary man;

The dead body of a human being

Lacking ease in bending; not limber;

Not moving or operating freely;

Powerful;

Rigidly formal;

Hard to overcome or surmount;

Of a collar; standing up rather than folded down;

Incapable of or resistant to bending;

Very drunk

Extremely;

In a stiff manner;