Meanings
plural STIFs · alternative STIFF
- datedslangLGBTA gay man seen as exhibiting heterosexual manners or attitudes.
1 more example
If there's "male hatred' in my book it's directed at those same attitudes in gay males who are […] still permeated with such solipsistic male assumptions, like those of our fathers and forefathers, that the world is for them alone and that it revolves around them, STIFFS, as they were once called early on when the movement had the word "liberation" in it: straight-identified faggots.
1982 April 24, Michael Rumaker, “Zephyrs”, in Gay Community News, page 5
Origin
Modified acronym of "straight-identified faggot". Punning on the slang sense of stiff, "a conventionalist person".
Full word history & related roots →Rhymes & wordplay
Anagrams
Cite this entry
STIF. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/STIF
“STIF.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/STIF. Accessed November 3, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “STIF,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/STIF.
Source: STIF on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.