Kerfuffle

//kəˈfʌfəl// noun, verb, slang

noun, verb, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Noun
  1. 1
    A disorderly outburst, disturbance, commotion, or tumult. Commonwealth, informal

    "You know all this kerfuffle about Jordan and Peter Andre, and how you don’t know if they’re really splitting up or it’s just an act[…]"

  2. 2
    a disorderly outburst or tumult wordnet
Verb
  1. 1
    To make a disorderly outburst or commotion. Commonwealth, Ireland, UK, informal, transitive

Synonyms

All synonyms
adobotherbrawlbrouhahacommotionding-dong

Example

More examples

"With all the kerfuffle since this morning I'd almost forgotten but we've still got the problem of the club members haven't we?"

Etymology

Probably from Scots curfuffle, equivalent to ker- + fuffle, or related to Irish cíor thuathail (“confusion, bewilderment”). Similar to modern Welsh cythrwfl (“uproar, trouble, agitation”)

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Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.