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duff

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duff¹

  • /dʌf/ US, UK
  • /dɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /dʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

Representing a northern England and Scots pronunciation of dough.

noun duffs

  1. countable, dialectal, uncountable Dough.
  2. countable, uncountable A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed. Later on, all the tinned meat came to an end, likewise the potatoes, and we lived on salt meat, biscuit, and duff; this fare was served out to all the messes on board, and we, I was going to say, saloon-folk, fared no better than the fo'castle hands.
  3. countable, uncountable A pudding-style dessert, especially one made with plums or (in the Bahamas) guavas. They must live on sea food—a deal more of salt beef, pork, beans, and hard tack is than of any thing else, but of the food at sea well as in port it may here be said that it is ample in quantity and good enough anybody, though by no means all strawberry shortcake and cream or plum duff.

duff²

  • /dʌf/ US, UK
  • /dɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /dʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).

noun duffs

  1. British Columbia, Northwestern, Scotland, US, countable, uncountable Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor. Forest fires have often been started from wantonness; for the sake of making a big blaze, fires will be carelessly left by guides, or will be smouldering in the duff,* where it will burn for weeks. I have seen the smoke from fires in the duff even after the snow has fallen. * Local term for the vege
  2. countable, uncountable Coal dust, especially that left after screening or combined with other small, unsaleable bits of coal.
  3. countable, uncountable Fine and dry coal in small pieces, usually anthracite. The great bulk of the coal burnt under our boilers is duff of a very small size, and a mixed coal of duff, peas, and small nuts.
  4. UK, countable, uncountable A mixture of coal and rock.
  5. countable, slang, uncountable The bits left in the bottom of the bag after the booty has been consumed, like crumbs.
  6. countable, uncountable Something spurious or fake; a counterfeit; a worthless thing; a defective thing.

    Similar: duffer

  7. countable, slang, uncountable An error.

adjective duffer · duffest

  1. UK Worthless; not working properly, defective. Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?

    Similar: bum

duff³

  • /dʌf/ US, UK
  • /dɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /dʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

Uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.

noun duffs

  1. US, slang The buttocks.

duff⁴

  • /dʌf/ US, UK
  • /dɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /dʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from duffer.

verb duffs · duffing · duffed

  1. obsolete, slang To disguise something to make it look new.
  2. obsolete, slang To sell spurious goods, often under pretence of their being stolen or smuggled. A person once taken-in by smuggled handkerchiefs, or anything, won’t deal with a hawker again, even though there’s no deception. But ‘duffing,’ and all that is going down fast, and I wish it was gone altogether.
  3. Australia To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
  4. US To hit the ground behind the ball.

duff⁵

  • /dʌf/ US, UK
  • /dɐf/ Australia, New Zealand
  • /dʊf/ Northern England

Rhymes with -ʌf

noun duffs

  1. alternative Alternative form of daf (“type of drum”).

DUFF⁶

  • /dʌf/

Rhymes with -ʌf

noun DUFFs

  1. abbreviation, acronym, derogatory, slang Acronym of dumb/designated ugly fat friend, an attractive woman's less attractive friend.

Duff⁷

  • /dʌf/

Sounds like duff · Rhymes with -ʌf

Where it comes from

From the Irish and Scottish Gaelic surname, from dubh (“dark”).

proper noun Duffs

  1. countable A surname.
  2. countable, uncountable A village in Saskatchewan, Canada.
  3. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Indiana, United States.
  4. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Nebraska, United States.
  5. countable, uncountable An unincorporated community in Tennessee, United States.
  6. countable A male given name.
  7. UK, countable, uncountable A BR class 47, a class of British diesel locomotive.

Thesaurus

Closest in meaning: hummus, plum, huff, backside, bedding, humus, litter, dov, doughy, dough, duffin, dougher, duffle, douth, duffer, doust

Translations

Every language

adj not working properly

Françaisnul
Italianosgangherato
Русскийникудышный nikudyšnyj, дрянной drjannoj

noun the buttocks

Portuguêsbumbum
Italianosedere, chiappe, deretano

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Cite this
MLA

"duff." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/duff. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

duff. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/duff

Chicago

"duff." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/duff.

BibTeX
@misc{duff_2026,
  title = {duff},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/duff},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}