A British dialect word describing the uncomfortable stuffiness of a room that's too warm, badly ventilated, or crammed with people — that heavy, airless feeling where the atmosphere feels almost solid. Stivy is the exact word for the sensation of walking into a pub or cottage where someone's had the fire going all day and no window open. It's particularly common in northern English dialects and captures a very specific kind of domestic discomfort that 'stuffy' almost gets at but doesn't quite nail.
It was so stivy in the back room that she had to step outside just to catch her breath.
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(UK, dialect) close; stuffy; stifling.
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Regional slang from around the English-speaking world — British, Australian, Irish, Caribbean, Nigerian, Filipino, AAVE, and the hyphenated-English dialects that make the internet sound local.
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