Hi, how often have you heard or used the phrase ‘to stiff someone’ meaning ‘not pay someone what is due’ or ‘to screw someone’?
Many thanks,
Torsten[YSaerTTEW443543]
TOEIC listening, photographs: House painting[YSaerTTEW443543]
“To screw someone” means to cheat or swindle a person. The swindler gets the person to willingly pay for inferior goods, or to pay too much for them. Screwing somebody is not the same as stiffing them.
“To stiff someone” means just not to pay someone at all for something you’re expected to pay for. We most often use this expression when a restaurant customer doesn’t leave a tip. (In the US, there is no service charge in the restaurant bill, so the tip is our means of giving feedback. If you don’t like the service, maybe you leave a nickel or some tiny amount of money to show that you haven’t forgotten about the tip.) However, I suppose we also say that you stiff someone if you don’t pay for merchandise you’ve received, etc. However, to stiff someone isn’t the same thing as cheating or swindling them.
Anyway, the idiom is extremely common.
When was the last time you stiffed someone then, Jamie? ;D