puff
Language: English
Part of speech: verb
Pronunciation: ipa: /pʌf/
ipa: /pɐf/
ipa: /pʊf/
rhymes: -ʌf
Forms: form: puffs
form: puffing
form: puffed
form: puffed
Etymology: 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.
Senses: examples: text: Still on the down line, the engine puffed away to the South, and in a few moments had disappeared in the darkness!
ref: 1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 53:
glosses: To emit smoke, gas, etc., in puffs.
examples: text: By and by comes the ass back again, Puffing and Blowing, from the Chase.
ref: 1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC:
text: 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.
ref: 1918 September–November, Edgar Rice Burroughs, “The Land That Time Forgot”, in The Blue Book Magazine, Chicago, Ill.: Story-press Corp., →OCLC; republished as chapter VI, in Hugo Gernsback, editor, Amazing Stories, (please specify |part=I to III), New York, N.Y.: Experimenter Publishing, 1927, →OCLC:
glosses: To pant.
glosses: To advertise.
examples: text: It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation.
ref: 1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London:
glosses: To blow as an expression of scorn.
examples: text: 'tis easy for a man to have a great opinion of his own knowledge , and be puff'd up by it
ref: 1690, Robert Boyle, The Christian Virtuoso:
glosses: To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.
examples: text: Then came brave Glory puffing by.
ref: 1633, George Herbert, The Quip:
glosses: To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.
examples: text: The clearing north will puff the clouds away.
ref: 1697, Virgil, “Georgic 1”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:
glosses: To drive with a puff, or with puffs.
examples: text: I puff the prostitute away.
ref: 1685, John Dryden, The Twenty-Ninth Ode of the First Book of Horace:
glosses: To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously.
examples: text: a bladder puffed with air
text: the sea puffed up with winds
ref: c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act I, scene ii]:
glosses: To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate.
examples: text: puffed up with military success
ref: 1881, Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides Translated into English:
glosses: To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, etc.; often with up.
examples: text: puffed with wonderful skill
ref: 1856 December, [Thomas Babington] Macaulay, “Samuel Johnson”, in T[homas] F[lower] E[llis], editor, The Miscellaneous Writings and Speeches of Lord Macaulay, new edition, London: Longman, Green, Reader, & Dyer, published 1871, →OCLC:
glosses: To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly.
Derived terms: outpuff
puffed
puffing Billy
puffing pig
puff one's chest
puff out
puff the magic dragon
puff up