baff

• IPA^(key): /bæf/
• Rhymes: -æf

From Middle English baffen (“to bark”). Cognate with Dutch baffen (“to bark”), Low German baffen (“to bark”), German baffen, bäfzen (“to bark”), Danish bjæffe (“to yelp”), Swedish bjäbba (“to yelp, bark”). Compare buff, yaff.

baff (third-person singular simple present baffs, present participle baffing, simple past and past participle baffed)

1. (intransitive, archaic) To bark; yelp.

Probably from Old French baffe (“slap in the face”) (French baffe), of imitative origin.

baff (third-person singular simple present baffs, present participle baffing, simple past and past participle baffed)

1. To hit or strike, especially with something flat or soft.
2. (golf) To strike the ground with the bottom of the club when taking a stroke.

• baffed out

baff (uncountable)

1. (Geordie) blank (Can we add an example for this sense?)

• The New Geordie Dictionary, Frank Graham, 1987, →ISBN
• Northumberland Words, English Dialect Society, R. Oliver Heslop, 1893–4

Onomatopoeic

• IPA^(key): [baf]

• Audio

  (file)

baff (not comparable)

1. (colloquial, chiefly predicative) flabbergasted

• baff in Duden online