Definitions

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Same as steeve for stiff.
  • To become stiff; stiffen.
  • To stiffen.
  • To stuff; cram; stow; crowd.
  • To stew, as meat.
  • To stew, as in a close atmosphere; be stifled.
  • noun An obsolete form of stew.
  • noun Dust; the dust floating in flour-mills during the operation of grinding.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • intransitive verb To be stifled or suffocated.
  • noun The floating dust in flour mills caused by the operation or grinding.
  • transitive verb To stuff; to crowd; to fill full; hence, to make hot and close; to render stifling.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun The floating dust in a flour mill caused by the operation of grinding.

Etymologies

Sorry, no etymologies found.

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Examples

Comments

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  • The examples shown for "stive" are errors, typos of "strive" or "stove"--with the exception of example #15, which may be applicable to some definitions.

    Valid example for meaning "stuffed, crowded":

    His chamber was commonly stived with friends or suitors of one kind or other. - Sir H. Wotton. http://www.thefreedictionary.com/Stive

    For the above meaning, the word seems to have come down from Middle English, maybe from French "estiver, Spanish "estivar", Latin "stipare".

    It is also Danish and Norwegian for "starch, stiffen".

    The noun meaning "floating dust" comes from Danish.

    May 6, 2011