stuffy

/ˈstʌfi/

/ˈstʌfi/

Other forms: stuffier; stuffiest

A room that's stuffy isn't well-ventilated or full of fresh air. If your classroom is stuffy, you may find it hard to concentrate. Better ask your teacher to open a window.

If your car is stuffy, it's hot and there isn't enough fresh air circulating. If your nose is stuffy, it's congested (also without enough air moving through it). When a person is stuffy, he or she is a little prim and proper, without a lot of imagination or a willingness to try new things. The very earliest meaning of this adjective, dating from about 1550, was "full of substance."

Definitions of stuffy

1. adjective

   lacking fresh air
   “hot and stuffy and the air was blue with smoke”

   synonyms: airless, close, unaired

   unventilated

   not ventilated
2. adjective

   affected with a sensation of stoppage or obstruction
   “a stuffy feeling in my chest”

   synonyms:

   obstructed

   shut off to passage or view or hindered from action
3. adjective

   excessively conventional and unimaginative and hence dull
   synonyms: stodgy

   conventional

   following accepted customs and proprieties