# muff
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /mʌf/
* (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /mɐf/
** Audio (General Australian):(file)
* (Northern England) IPA: /mʊf/
* Rhymes: -ʌf

### Etymology 1

Probably from Dutch mof (“muff, mitten”).

#### Noun

muff (plural muffs)
* (historical) A piece of fur or cloth, usually with open ends, used for keeping the hands warm.
** 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
* (vulgar, slang) The vulva or vagina; pubic hair around it.
    Synonyms: muffin; see also Thesaurus:vagina.
* (by extension, vulgar, slang) A woman or girl.
* (glassblowing) A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.
* The feathers sticking out from both sides of the face under the beak of some birds.
* A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object such as a pipe.

##### Synonyms

* whiskers, beard, muff and beard (bird feathers):

##### Derived terms

* furry muff
* marry-muff
* muff diver
* muff-diving
* muff pistol
* twiddle muff

##### Translations
#### References

* “muff, n.1.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000.
* “muff”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.

### Etymology 2

Unknown; perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1, above; or perhaps related to Dutch muffen (“to dote”) and German muffen (“to sulk”).

#### Noun

muff (plural muffs)
* (colloquial) A fool, a stupid or poor-spirited person. [from 19th c.]
** 1860, William Makepeace Thackeray, Lovel the Widower:Can you fancy that such an old creature (an old muff, as you call him, you wicked, satirical man!) could ever make en impression on my heart?
* (slang, chiefly sports) An error, a mistake; a failure to hold a ball when once in the hands. [from 19th c.]
* A bird, the whitethroat.

##### Translations
#### Verb

muff (third-person singular simple present muffs, present participle muffing, simple past and past participle muffed)
* (sports) To drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly. [from 19th c.]
* To mishandle; to bungle. [from 1920s]
** 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 69:Here was the superlative opportunity to make a generous and lasting settlement from a position of strength; but the pieds noirs, like the Israelis, and from not altogether dissimilar motives, were to muff it.

##### Derived terms

* muff up

##### Translations
### Etymology 3

Shortening.

#### Noun

muff (plural muffs)
* (slang) A muffin.
** 2010, Lindsay G. Arthur, The Litigators, page 63:Skinny lattes and a couple of blueberry muffs.

## German
### Pronunciation

* IPA: [mʊf]
* Audio:(file)

### Verb

muff
* singular imperative of muffen
* (colloquial) first-person singular present of muffen

## Hungarian
### Etymology

From German Muff, from Dutch mof ("muff"), from Middle Dutch moffel, from Middle French moufle ("mitten"), from Medieval Latin muffula ("fur-lined glove"), of unknown origin.

### Pronunciation

* IPA: [ˈmufː]
* Hyphenation: muff
* Rhymes: -ufː

### Noun

muff (plural muffok)
* (archaic) muff (handwarmer)
* (slang) vagina
* (slang) woman

#### Declension
### Further reading

* muff in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (“The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language”, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

## Swedish
### Etymology

From German Muffe, a Low German subform of Muff.

### Noun

muff c
* a muff (for keeping hands warm)
* a sleeve ((tubular) covering or lining, e.g. for connecting pipes)
* (slang) muff (female pubic hair, female genitalia)

#### Derived terms

* rattmuff (“steering wheel cover made of fabric”)

### References

* muff in Svensk ordbok (SO)
* muff in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
* Fula Ordboken