Duffy
name, noun ·Rare ·Advanced level
Definitions
- 1 Archaic form of duppy (“Caribbean ghost or spirit”). alt-of, archaic
- 1 A surname from Irish, an anglicization of Ó Dubhthaigh (“descendant of Dubhthach”). Dubhthach is a byname derived from dubh (“black”). countable, uncountable
"More than 7,000 commercial truck drivers have been placed out of service this year for failing to meet federal English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday on X (formerly Twitter)."
- 2 A surname from Irish, an anglicization of Ó Doithe. countable, uncountable
- 3 A Scottish surname from Scottish Gaelic [in turn originating as a patronymic], an alternate anglicization of Mac Dhuibhshíthe (McPhee). countable, uncountable
- 4 A suburb of Canberra, Australia; named for Charles Gavan Duffy, 8th Premier of Victoria. countable, uncountable
- 5 An unincorporated community in Ohio Township, Monroe County, Ohio, United States. countable, uncountable
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- 6 An unincorporated community in Lewis County, West Virginia, United States. countable, uncountable
Example
More examples"More than 7,000 commercial truck drivers have been placed out of service this year for failing to meet federal English Language Proficiency (ELP) standards, U.S. Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy announced Thursday on X (formerly Twitter)."
Etymology
From the Irish surname, from Ó Dubhthaigh (literally “descendant of Dubhthach”) and Mac Duibhshíthe (literally “son of Duibhshíth”), from dubh (“black”) + sìth (“peace”), comparable to the surname Duff.
Related phrases
More for "duffy"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.