Puffin
//ˈpʌfɪn// noun
noun ·Uncommon ·Advanced level
Definitions
Noun
- 1 The young of the Manx shearwater (Puffinus puffinus), especially eaten as food. obsolete
- 2 any of two genera of northern seabirds having short necks and brightly colored compressed bills wordnet
- 3 The Atlantic puffin (Fratercula arctica) or (by extension) any of the other various small seabirds of the genera Fratercula and Lunda that are black and white with a brightly-coloured beak.
"Naturally the Chickies and the Gooverooskies and the Epatkas—the Burgomaster Gulls and the Kittiwakes and the Puffins, who are always looking for a chance to be rude—took up the cry, and—so Limmershin told me—for nearly five minutes you could not have heard a gun fired on Walrus Islet."
- 4 Any of various African and Asian pierid butterflies of the genus Appias. Some species of this genus are also known as albatrosses.
- 5 A puffball. obsolete
Example
More examples"Today, a record 109 puffin pairs waddle about peaceably on Eastern Egg Rock, living amid terns and laughing gulls, whose shrieks pierce the sky."
Etymology
From Middle English poffin, poffoun, puffon, equivalent to puff + -ing, or perhaps ultimately from Middle Cornish (compare Breton poc'han (“puffin”)).
Related phrases
More for "puffin"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.