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Buff

//bʌf// adj, name, noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
  2. 2
    Unusually muscular. colloquial

    "The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl."

  3. 3
    Physically attractive. Multicultural-London-English, slang

    "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."

Adjective
  1. 1
    of the yellowish-beige color of buff leather wordnet
Proper Noun
  1. 1
    A surname.
Noun
  1. 1
    Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals. countable, uncountable

    "[…]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]"

  2. 2
    A strike; a blow. obsolete

    "Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel."

  3. 3
    A buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo. countable, informal, uncountable

    "[…] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […]"

  4. 4
    Alternative form of buffe (“face armor”). alt-of, alternative, uncommon

    "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 : […]"

  5. 5
    Acronym of big ugly fat fellow (or fucker), US Airforce nickname for the B-52 bomber. US, abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, slang

    "The B-52 Stratofortress is not called the Buff because it is painted a tan or dun-brown color."

Show 17 more definitions
  1. 6
    A member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment). UK, plural
  2. 7
    Clipping of Buffalo nickel. abbreviation, alt-of, clipping
  3. 8
    A member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes. UK, slang
  4. 9
    an implement consisting of soft material mounted on a block; used for polishing (as in manicuring) wordnet
  5. 10
    A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing. countable, uncountable
  6. 11
    a medium to dark tan color wordnet
  7. 12
    A brownish yellow colour. countable, uncountable

    "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."

  8. 13
    bare skin wordnet
  9. 14
    A military coat made of buff leather. countable, uncountable

    "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 […]"

  10. 15
    an ardent follower and admirer wordnet
  11. 16
    A person who is very interested in a particular subject. countable, informal, uncountable

    "He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war."

  12. 17
    a soft thick undyed leather from the skins of e.g. buffalo or oxen wordnet
  13. 18
    An effect that makes a character or item stronger. countable, uncountable

    "I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!"

  14. 19
    Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition. countable, uncountable
  15. 20
    The bare skin. colloquial, countable, uncountable

    "to strip to the buff"

  16. 21
    The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat. countable, uncountable
  17. 22
    Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits. countable, uncountable

    "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."

Slang
  1. 1
    To strengthen a game character, item, or tactic. slang, gaming, 2010s-2020s

    "That class got a needed buff."

Verb
  1. 1
    To polish and make shiny by rubbing.

    "He was already buffing the car's hubs."

  2. 2
    To strike.

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

  3. 3
    To stammer, stutter dialectal, obsolete
  4. 4
    polish and make shiny wordnet
  5. 5
    To make a character or an item stronger.

    "The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon."

Show 4 more definitions
  1. 6
    strike, beat repeatedly wordnet
  2. 7
    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."

  3. 8
    To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer. slang
  4. 9
    To strip to the bare skin. archaic, slang, transitive

Etymology

Etymology 1

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

Etymology 2

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

Etymology 3

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

Etymology 4

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

Etymology 5

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

Etymology 6

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.

Etymology 7

Clipping of buffalo.

Etymology 8

From the colour of their facings.

See also for "buff"

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