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BUFF

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buff¹

  • /bʌf/ US, UK
  • /bɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /bʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

Etymology tree

Ancient Greek [Term?]?

Ancient Greek βούβαλος (boúbalos)bor.

Latin būbalusder.

Late Latin bufalusder.

Italian bufaloder.

Old French bufle

Middle French buffleder.

English buffe

English buff

From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).

noun buffs

  1. countable, uncountable Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals. […]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]
  2. countable, uncountable A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
  3. countable, uncountable A brownish yellow colour. 1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 10, lines 307-308, p. 203, […] a Visage rough, Deform’d, Unfeatur’d, and a Skin of Buff.
  4. countable, uncountable A military coat made of buff leather. A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]
  5. countable, informal, uncountable A person who is very interested in a particular subject. He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.
  6. countable, uncountable A change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.
  7. countable, uncountable An effect that makes a character or item stronger. I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!
  8. countable, uncountable Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
  9. colloquial, countable, uncountable The bare skin. to strip to the buff
  10. countable, uncountable The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
  11. countable, uncountable Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits. 2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014, Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.

adjective buffer · more buff · buffest · most buff

  1. Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
  2. colloquial Unusually muscular. The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.
  3. Multicultural London English, slang Physically attractive. That's right: I'm taking driver's ed next semester. Hiring an interpreter for CHS and the deaf school outta my own hefty pockets. You're welcome. Oh, and I'm going to get really skinny and buff. All slim like a swimsuit model.

verb buffs · buffing · buffed

  1. To polish and make shiny by rubbing. He was already buffing the car's hubs.
  2. To make a character or an item stronger. The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.
  3. To modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner. "Sure thing, I buffed her, and they turfed her to urology, but she bounced back to me!" [...] They attempted to transfer her to urology by modifying her chart (buffing it) to request urine tests, but the doctors in urology sent (bounced) her back.
  4. slang To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
  5. archaic, slang, transitive To strip to the bare skin.

buff²

  • /bʌf/ US, UK
  • /bɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /bʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

From Old French bufer (“to cuff, buffet”). See buffet (“a blow”).

verb buffs · buffing · buffed

  1. To strike. Bravely run Red-hood, / There was a shock, / To have buff’d out the blood / From ought but a block.

noun buffs

  1. obsolete A strike; a blow. Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel.

buff³

  • /bʌf/ US, UK
  • /bɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /bʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

From Middle English buffen (“to stutter, stammer”), from Old English byffan (“to mumble, mutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bubjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to fear, to be afraid”). More at bive (“tremble, shake”) and bever.

verb buffs · buffing · buffed

  1. dialectal, obsolete To stammer, stutter

buff⁴

  • /bʌf/ US, UK
  • /bɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /bʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

Clipping of buffalo.

noun buffs

  1. countable, informal, uncountable A buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo. […] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […]

buff⁵

  • /bʌf/ US, UK
  • /bɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /bʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

noun buffs

  1. alternative, uncommon Alternative form of buffe (“face armor”).buffe For they had helmets on their heads, fashioned like wild beast's necks, and strange beavers or buffs to the same, and wore on their helmets great high plumes of feathers, as they had been wings : […]

BUFF⁶

noun BUFFs · Buff

  1. US, abbreviation, acronym, slang Acronym of big ugly fat fellow (or fucker), US Air Force nickname for the B-52 bomber.big ugly fat fellow The B-52 Stratofortress is not called the Buff because it is painted a tan or dun-brown color.

Buff⁷

proper noun

  1. A surname.

Buff⁸

Where it comes from

From the colour of their facings.

noun Buffs

  1. UK, plural A member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).

Buff⁹

noun Buffs

  1. abbreviation, clipping Clipping of Buffalo nickel.Buffalo nickel

Buff10

noun Buffs

  1. UK, slang A member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.

Buff11

noun Buffs

  1. slang A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft.

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