puff

• IPA^(key): /pʌf/

• Audio (AU)

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• Rhymes: -ʌf

From Middle English puff, puf, from Old English pyf (“a blast of wind, puff”). Cognate with Middle Low German puf, pof.

puff (countable and uncountable, plural puffs)

1. (countable) A sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth.
2. (uncountable) The ability to breathe easily while exerting oneself.

   Synonym: wind

   out of puff

3. (countable) A small quantity of gas or smoke in the air.

   puff of smoke

4. (countable) A sudden gust.
   • Flatman

     to every puff of wind a slave

5. (informal, countable) An act of inhaling smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe.

   Synonym: drag

6. (countable) A flamboyant or alluring statement about an object's quality.
7. (dated, slang) A puffer, one who is employed by the owner or seller of goods sold at auction to bid up the price; an act or scam of that type.
   • 1842, "A Paper on Puffing", in Ainsworth's Magazine

     Is nothing to be said in praise of the "Emporiums" and "Repositories" and "Divans," which formerly were mere insignificant tailors', toymen's, and tobacconists' shops? Is the transition from the barber's pole to the revolving bust of the perruquier, nothing? — the leap from the bare counter-traversed shop to the carpeted and mirrored saloon of trade, nothing? Are they not, one and all, practical puffs, intended to invest commerce with elegance, and to throw a halo round extravagance?

   • 1848, Mrs. White, "Puffs and Puffing", in Sharpe's London Magazine

     Here the duke is made the vehicle of the tailor's advertisement, and the prelusive compliments, ostensibly meant for his grace, merge into a covert recommendation of the coat. Several specimens might be given of this species of puff, which is to be met with in almost every paper, and is a favourite form with booksellers, professional men, &c.

   • 2008, David Paton-Williamspage, Katterfelto, page xii

     He was the eighteenth century king of spin, or, in the language of the day, the "prince of puff".

8. A puffball.
   • 1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, London: Edward Blount, p. 47,

     Bozzacchio, an acorne. Also a puffe or mushrump full of dust.

9. A powder puff.
10. (uncountable, slang) The drug cannabis.

    Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana

11. (countable) A light cake filled with cream, cream cheese, etc.

    Synonyms: pastry, cream puff

    cream puff

12. (derogatory, slang, Britain, particularly northern UK) Synonym of poof: a male homosexual, especially an effeminate one.
13. (slang, dated, Britain) Life.
    • 1938, P. G. Wodehouse (Bertie Wooster speaking of Spode) in The Code of the Woosters

      Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?

From Middle English puffen, from Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). Compare Dutch puffen, German Low German puffen, German puffen, Danish puffe, Swedish puffa.

puff (third-person singular simple present puffs, present participle puffing, simple past and past participle puffed)

1. (intransitive) To emit smoke, gas, etc., in puffs.
2. (intransitive) To pant.
   • L'Estrange

     The ass comes back again, puffing and blowing, from the chase.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VI

     Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing.

3. (transitive, archaic) To advertise.
4. To blow as an expression of scorn.
   • South

     It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation.

5. To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Boyle to this entry?)

6. To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.
   • Herbert

     Then came brave Glory puffing by.

7. To drive with a puff, or with puffs.
   • Dryden

     The clearing north will puff the clouds away.

8. To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously.
   • Dryden

     I puff the prostitute away.

9. To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate.

   a bladder puffed with air

   • Shakespeare

     the sea puffed up with winds

10. To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, etc.; often with up.
    • Jowett

      puffed up with military success

11. To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly.
    • Macaulay

      puffed with wonderful skill

• outpuff
• puffed
• puff up
• puff out

puff

1. poof (deflating object or a magical disappearance)

• IPA^(key): [ˈpufː]
• Hyphenation: puff

From German puffen.[1]

puff (plural puffok)

1. pouf, puff, pouffe (a backless, rounded, cushioned low stool)
2. (dressmaking) pouf (on the upper part of the sleeves)
3. puff, powder puff (a pad of soft material used for the application of cosmetic powder to the face)

Back-formation from puffad, puffant, puffaszt.[2]

puff

1. bang! pouf! (onomatopoeia representing a sudden sharp noise or crashing sound)