puff

A sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth.

Noun

  1. A sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth.
  2. The ability to breathe easily while exerting oneself.
    • out of puff

    Synonyms: wind

  3. A small quantity of gas or smoke in the air.
    • puff of smoke
  4. A sudden but small gust of wind, smoke, etc.
    • to every puff of wind a slave - 1674, Thomas Flatman, Poems and Songs:
    • "The wind we had was only an early puff! You'll see we shall have our full allowance!" - 1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 184:
  5. An act of inhaling smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe.
    • When I went to bed that night I found that I could not get to sleep. At five o'clock I got up and took a hot bath. I climbed back into bed and lighted one of the Chinese-made "Great Wall" cigars my hosts had...

    Synonyms: drag

  6. The drug cannabis.

    Synonyms: bhang benj boo broccoli bud buddha cannabis cheeba choof daccha dank devil's lettuce djamba doja doobage dope endo gage ganja ganj grass green greenery hash

  7. A flamboyant or alluring statement of praise.
    • […] though I care not one straw for the personal puffs of which I myself am so often the subject […] - 1902, Robert Marshall Grade, The Haunted Major:
    • […] we critics were not his fellow-guests, but simply deadheads whose business it was to "dress the house" and write puffs. - 1931, Bernard Shaw, Our Theatre in the Nineties, volume 24, page 246:
  8. A portion of fabric gathered up so as to be left full in the middle.
    • a sleeve with a puff at the shoulder
  9. A light cake filled with cream, cream cheese, etc.
    • cream puff

    Synonyms: pastry cream puff

  10. A puffball.
    • Bozzacchio, an acorne. Also a puffe or mushrump full of dust. - 1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, London: Edward Blount, page 47:
  11. A powder puff.
  12. A puffer, one who is employed by the owner or seller of goods sold at auction to bid up the price; an act or scam of that type.
    • Is nothing to be said in praise of the "Emporiums" and "Repositories" and "Divans," which formerly were mere insignificant tailors', toymen's, and tobacconists' shops? Is the transition from the barber's pole to the...
    • Here the duke is made the vehicle of the tailor's advertisement, and the prelusive compliments, ostensibly meant for his grace, merge into a covert recommendation of the coat. Several specimens might be given of this...
    • He was the eighteenth century king of spin, or, in the language of the day, the "prince of puff". - 2008, David Paton-Williamspage, Katterfelto, page xii:

Origin

From Middle English puff, puf, from Old English pyf (“a blast of wind, puff”), from Proto-West Germanic *puf(f)- (“to blow, puff”), of imitative origin. Cognate with Dutch puf (“puff, wind, fart”), Middle Low German puf, pof (“puff”).

Forms

puffs

Derived

airpuff air puff test cheese puff cheesy puff crab puff cream puff curry puff fluff huff and puff Hufflepuff in a puff of smoke Jigglypuff love in a puff nun's puff piffle pizza puff powder puff puff adder puff and darts puffback puffbird puff-box puffcorn puffer

Verb

  1. To emit smoke, gas, etc., in puffs.
    • Still on the down line, the engine puffed away to the South, and in a few moments had disappeared in the darkness! - 1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 53:
  2. To pant.
    • By and by comes the ass back again, Puffing and Blowing, from the Chase. - 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent...
    • Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing. - 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue...
  3. To advertise.
  4. To blow as an expression of scorn.
    • It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation. - 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
  5. To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.
    • 'tis easy for a man to have a great opinion of his own knowledge , and be puff'd up by it - 1690, Robert Boyle, The Christian Virtuoso:
  6. To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.
    • Then came brave Glory puffing by. - 1633, George Herbert, The Quip:
  7. To drive with a puff, or with puffs.
    • The clearing north will puff the clouds away. - 1697, Virgil, “Georgic 1”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
  8. To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously.
    • I puff the prostitute away. - 1685, John Dryden, The Twenty-Ninth Ode of the First Book of Horace:
  9. To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate.
    • a bladder puffed with air
    • the sea puffed up with winds - c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and...
  10. To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, etc.; often with up.
    • puffed up with military success - 1881, Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides Translated into English:
  11. To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly.
    • puffed with wonderful skill - 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman,...

    Synonyms: jolly lay it on thick soothe brush up to collogue flatter flatterize glaver gloze make fair weather palaver preen puff speak well of stroke tickle the ear aggrandize applaud enthrone appraise belaud bepraise commend cry up

Origin

From Middle English puffen, from Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). Compare Dutch puffen, German Low German puffen, German puffen, Danish puffe, Swedish puffa.

Forms

puffs puffing puffed

Derived

apuff bepuff depuff outpuff puffable puffed puffing Billy puffingly puffing pig puff one's chest puff out puff the magic dragon puff up puft repuff unpuff unpuffed unpuffing