buffer
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ˈbʌfə(ɹ)/
ipa: [ˈbɐfə(ɹ)]
ipa: /ˈbʌfɚ/
ipa: /ˈbafə(ɹ)/
ipa: [ˈbäfə(ɹ)]
rhymes: -ʌfə(ɹ)
Forms: form: buffers
Etymology: Agent noun from obsolete verb buff (“make a dull sound when struck”) (mid-16c.), from Old French buffe (“blow”).
The “boatswain's mate” sense is said to be popularly explained by the mate being a “buffer”, that is intermediary, between officers and men, but various other explanations have also been proposed.
Senses: topics: chemistry
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid, such as by resisting a change in pH when an acid or alkali is added.
topics: engineering
mechanical-engineering
mechanics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.
examples: text: 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, https://archive.org/details/mikadootherplays00gilb
The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer / To ride on a buffer / In Parliamentary trains.
text: The underframe, which has been designed to take buffing loads of 200 tons both on the centre coupler and on the retractable side buffers, consists of two centre girders from which cantilevers project to support the solebars, which in turn carry the bodyside structure.
ref: 1951 May, “British Railways Standard Coaches”, in Railway Magazine, page 327:
text: Then, with a shock like a thousand goods trains crashing into a thousand pairs of buffers, the lips of rock closed.
ref: 1953, C. S. Lewis, chapter 14, in The Silver Chair, Collins, published 1998:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
examples: text: Of course, I was not always right. I questioned the value of Crossrail (a scheme revived by Prescott after being scrapped by the Conservatives), suggesting wrongly that it may be "doomed to hit the buffers" […]. A dozen years later, I published my book on it, extolling the line's wonders. We are all allowed to change our minds.
ref: 2024 January 10, Christian Wolmar, “A time for change? ... just as it was back in issue 262”, in RAIL, number 1000, page 61:
topics: rail-transport
railways
transport
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
The barrier placed at the end of the track to absorb the impact of a train that fails to stop.
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
topics: communications
electrical-engineering
engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
telecommunications
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.
topics: computing
engineering
mathematics
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
sciences
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A portion of memory set aside to temporarily store data, often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.
topics: government
politics
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
qualifier: international relations
examples: text: I keep a savings buffer of three months' worth of living expenses.
topics: business
finance
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A reserve of funds set aside for use only when adverse circumstances prevail.
examples: text: An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight.
ref: 2011 November 10, Jeremy Wilson, “England Under 21 5 Iceland Under 21 0: match report”, in Telegraph:
glosses: Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
A gap that isolates or separates two things.
examples: text: He decided to run for president of the POs' Mess against the Buffer, Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.
ref: 2001, Mark Higgitt, Through Fire and Water, page 43:
text: I happen to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when the Buffer arrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.
ref: 2015, Peter Broadbent, A Singapore Fling: An AB's Far-Flung Adventure:
topics: nautical
transport
glosses: The chief boatswain's mate.
Derived terms: back buffer
buffer beam
bufferbloat
bufferhead
bufferize
bufferless
buffer overflow
buffer overrun
buffer solution
buffer state
buffer stock
buffer stop
buffer underrun
buffer zone
circular buffer
cryobuffer
direct buffer
framebuffer
gap buffer
G-buffer
immunobuffer
multibuffer
non-direct buffer
printer buffer
riparian buffer
shadow buffer
stencil buffer
volatility buffer
w-buffer
z-buffer