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Duff
Definitions
- 1 Worthless; not working properly, defective. UK
"Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?"
- 1 A surname. countable
- 2 A placename; A village in Saskatchewan, Canada. countable, uncountable
- 3 A placename; An unincorporated community in Indiana, United States. countable, uncountable
- 4 A placename; An unincorporated community in Nebraska, United States. countable, uncountable
- 5 A placename; An unincorporated community in Tennessee, United States. countable, uncountable
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- 6 A male given name. countable
- 7 A BR class 47, a class of British diesel locomotive. UK, countable, uncountable
- 1 Dough. countable, dialectal, uncountable
- 2 Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor. British-Columbia, Northwestern, Scotland, US, countable, uncountable
"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 vegetable growth covering the forest ground of the Adirondacks. under the spruce trees, the falling needles accumulate to considerable depth, forming the "spruce duff," a peculiar and interesting variety of forest humus."
- 3 The buttocks. US, slang
- 4 Alternative form of daf (“type of drum”). alt-of, alternative
- 5 Acronym of dumb/designated ugly fat friend, an attractive woman's less attractive friend. abbreviation, acronym, alt-of, derogatory, slang
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- 6 a stiff flour pudding steamed or boiled usually and containing e.g. currants and raisins and citron wordnet
- 7 A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 8 Coal dust, especially that left after screening or combined with other small, unsaleable bits of coal. countable, uncountable
- 9 A pudding-style dessert, especially one made with plums or (in the Bahamas) guavas. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 10 Fine and dry coal in small pieces, usually anthracite. countable, uncountable
"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."
- 11 A mixture of coal and rock. British, countable, uncountable
- 12 The bits left in the bottom of the bag after the booty has been consumed, like crumbs. countable, slang, uncountable
- 13 Something spurious or fake; a counterfeit; a worthless thing; a defective thing. countable, uncountable
- 14 An error. countable, slang, uncountable
- 1 To disguise something to make it look new. obsolete, slang
- 2 To sell spurious goods, often under pretence of their being stolen or smuggled. obsolete, slang
"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 To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle. Australia
- 4 To hit the ground behind the ball. US
Etymology
Representing a northern England and Scots pronunciation of dough.
Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).
Uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).
Uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.
Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from duffer.
From the Irish and Scottish Gaelic surname, from dubh (“dark”).
See also for "duff"
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Unscramble this word: duff