Naff

//næf// adj, name, slang

adj, name, slang ·Moderate ·College level

Definitions

Adjective
  1. 1
    Bad; tasteless, poorly thought out, not workable. British, Commonwealth, Ireland, Polari, colloquial

    "That tie is a bit naff, don’t you think?"

  2. 2
    Heterosexual. Polari

    "The omie was a veritable donkey beneath the waistband, darlings. A donkey! No wonder your boss-palone is so smitten. I've seen my share, dollies, but this old omiepalone was shaken to the core. Such a terrible waste on a naff bloke."

Proper Noun
  1. 1
    An English surname.

Synonyms

All synonyms
arrantbadcodcrummydiregruesome

Example

More examples

"My new phone case is a bit naff."

Etymology

Etymology 1

Perhaps from Polari, 1960s. Further etymology unknown; perhaps a conscious corruption of either fanny or eff (off) (see naff off).

Etymology 2

South German and Alemannic German surname (Näff), variant of Neff.

Related phrases

naff allnaff off

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