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Fluff

//flʌf// noun, verb, slang

Definitions

Noun

1
Anything light, soft or fuzzy, especially fur, hair, feathers. countable, uncountable
"[W]hen I walk in my fields I can see, down Berwick way, the little fluffs of white smoke which tell me of this strange new hundred-legged beast, with coals for food and a thousand men in its belly, for ever crawling over the border."
2
a blunder (especially an actor's forgetting the lines) wordnet
3
Anything inconsequential or superficial. countable, uncountable
"That article was basically a bunch of fluff. It didn't say anything substantive."
4
something of little value or significance wordnet
5
A lapse or mistake, especially a mistake in an actor's lines. countable, informal, uncountable

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6
any light downy material wordnet
7
A cloth diaper. countable, informal, slang, uncountable
8
Marshmallow creme. New-England, countable, uncountable
"That New England-style salami and fluff sandwich sure hit the spot!"
9
A passive partner in a lesbian relationship. countable, uncountable
10
A fart. Australia, Canada, New-Zealand, countable, euphemistic, uncountable
11
Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance. countable, slang, uncountable
"And when something triggers, I can close the window and go read fluff for hours until I calm down."
12
A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot; often used in the context of (but not limited to) filling time. UK, countable, uncountable
13
Short change deliberately given by a railway clerk, to keep back money for himself. UK, countable, obsolete, slang, uncountable
""What?" cried the counter-man, indignantly. "Been a railwayman all these years, and don't know what fluff is? Why, 'pon me word, you deserve to get the sack!""

Verb

1
To make something fluffy. transitive
"The cat fluffed its tail."
2
ruffle (one's hair) by combing the ends towards the scalp, for a full effect wordnet
3
To become fluffy, puff up. intransitive
4
erect or fluff up wordnet
5
To move lightly like fluff. intransitive
"She gave the music-stool a twirl or two and fluffed down on to it like a whirl of soap-suds in a hand-basin."

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6
make a mess of, destroy or ruin wordnet
7
To make a mistake in one's lines. informal, intransitive, transitive
8
To do incorrectly, for example mishit, miskick, miscue etc. informal, transitive
"Either side of Rooney's fluffed chance, it was a tale of Ukrainian domination as they attacked England down both flanks and showed the greater fluidity of the teams."
9
To break wind, to fart. Australia, euphemistic, intransitive
10
To arouse (a male pornographic actor) before filming. slang, transitive
"To get Lance Bronson hard, Chi Chi, in desperation, called Sharon Kane to come and fluff him on the set. People were always asking me how they could get a job as a fluffer."
11
To bring to a state of excitement. broadly, slang, transitive
"The warmup guy — as I now know is common for live audiences in taped television performances — kept fluffing the crowd like they were preschoolers. “Now what are you going to do when we introduce the first comedian?” Wild cheers. “C'mon, that's not good enough! Let's try it again! What are you going to do???”"
12
To deliberately shortchange (a railway customer) and keep the money for oneself. UK, obsolete, slang
"A genial counter-man told Mr. Manners that, if he played artful, he might even now obtain the position of outside porter; you got no pay there, but you could gain a moderate competency by fluffing."

Etymology

Etymology 1

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe, of uncertain ultimate origin: * Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”); see flaw * Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”). * Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”). For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”), Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

Etymology 2

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