buff
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /bʌf/
ipa: /bɐf/
ipa: /bʊf/
rhymes: -ʌf
Forms: form: buffs
Etymology: From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
Senses: examples: text: […]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]
ref: c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
glosses: Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
glosses: A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
examples: text: 1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 10, lines 307-308, p. 203,
[…] a Visage rough,
Deform’d, Unfeatur’d, and a Skin of Buff.
text: His face changed from tan to buff.
ref: 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 24, in Red Harvest:
glosses: A brownish yellow colour.
examples: text: A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]
ref: c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
glosses: A military coat made of buff leather.
examples: text: He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.
synonyms: word: enthusiast
word: aficionado
word: amateur
word: admirer
word: aficionado
word: buff
word: connoisseur
word: enthusiast
word: devotee
word: maniac
word: fan
word: fanatic
word: fancier
word: fancy
word: fiend
word: freak
word: geek
word: junkie
word: partisan
word: rooter
word: zealot
glosses: A person who is very interested in a particular subject.
examples: text: I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!
topics: video-games
synonyms: revamp
antonyms: debuff
nerf
qualifier: roleplaying games
glosses: An effect that makes a character or item stronger.
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
examples: text: to strip to the buff
text: To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked.
ref: 1880, Thomas Wright, “buff”, in Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English, containing words from the English writers previous to the nineteenth century which are no longer in use, or are not used in the same sense. And words which are now used only in the provincial dialects, volume 1, London: George Bell and Sons, page 265
text: Not to mention, nudity can be just plain convenient. “Laundry is minimal,” Schulte notes. It also doesn’t hurt that being in the buff spices up his workday.
ref: 2021 October 18, Ian Lecklitzner, “The Inevitable Rise of the Work-From-Home Nudist”, in MEL Magazine:
glosses: The bare skin.
glosses: The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
examples: 2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014,
Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.
glosses: Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.
Derived terms: buff-bellied pipit
buff-breasted sandpiper
buff coat
buffery
buffhood
buffish
buffism
buff jerkin
buff nor stye
buff-tailed bumblebee
buffware
buffy
in the buff
iron buff
railbuff
railway buff