▪ I. fuff, n. Chiefly Sc.
(fʌf)
[f. next vb.]
1. A puff of wind; also a sound resembling this; the ‘spit’ of a cat; a whiff (of tobacco-smoke).
| 1535 Lyndesay Satyre 2137 Ane fistand flag; a flagartie fuffe. 1804 W. Tarras Poems 67 Something hin' her wi' a skyte, Gat up, an' gied a fuff. 1816 Scott Antiq. ix, ‘The ghaist..then disappeared like a fuff o' tobacco.’ 1881 Stevenson Thrawn Janet in Cornhill Mag. XLIV. 443 ‘There cam' a clap o' wund, like a cat's fuff.’ 1895 United Presb. Mag. Apr. 167 The stillness was unbroken save by the cheerful fuff of the fire. |
2. A burst of ill temper; ‘huff’, ‘fume’.
| 1834 Carlyle Let. 28 Jan. in Froude Remin. (1882) II. 410 What a miserable fuff thou gettest into, poor old exasperated politician! 1838 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 102, I have put the Stimabile in a great fuff. 1893 Stevenson Catriona 235 The causelessness of all this fuff stirred my own bile. |
3. ? A soft feathery mass. (Cf. fluff.)
| 1700 S. L. tr. Fryke's Voy. E. Ind. 47 The Leaves [of the coco-nut tree] spread themselves all in a fuff, and the Nutts under them. |
▪ II. fuff, v. Sc. and dial.
(fʌf)
[echoic. Cf. faffle, faff dial.]
1. intr. To puff. Said of a breeze, fire, etc.; also, of a person in anger or out of breath. Also, to fume and fuff, fuff and pegh.
| 1513 Douglas æneis viii. vii. 120 The hait fyr Dois fuf and blaw in blesis byrnand schyr. 1721 Ramsay Elegy Patie Birnie iii, When strangers landed..Fuffin an peghing, he wad gang, And crave their pardon that sae lang He'd been a coming. 1756 M. Calderwood Jrnl. vii. (1884) 204 She fuffed and kindled, if they but opened their mouth. 1819 W. Tennant Papistry Storm'd (1827) 160 For ane that gat in o' that rout, Ten fuffin' stood a while thairout. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 39 He brings me in mind o' a barrel o' beer, fuming and fuffing. 1864 Athenæum No. 1928. 456/2 It was a smithy, fuffing, glowing. 1876 Whitby Gloss., Fuff, to puff, as a breeze does. |
b. To go away or off with a puff. lit. and fig.
| 1822 Galt Sir A. Wylie III. xviii. 150 ‘He fuffed awa wi a' his gowd and gear to Miss Jenny’. 1892 Northumbld. Gloss. s.v., The poother fuffed off iv a jiffy. |
2. Of a cat or tiger: To ‘spit’.
| a 1693 [see the vbl. n.]. 1840 Mrs. Carlyle Lett. (1883) I. 124 Coiled up and fuffing like a young tiger about to spring. |
3. trans. To puff (a tobacco-pipe). Also, to send out (steam) with a fuff.
| 1787 Burns Halloween xiii, She fuff't her pipe wi' sic a lunt. 1818 Scott Hrt. Midl. xlv, ‘Reuben Butler isna the man I take him to be, if he disna learn the Captain to fuff his pipe some other gate than in God's house.’ 1894 Crockett Raiders 240 The pot boiled and fuffed out little puffs of steam. |
Hence ˈfuffing vbl. n. and ppl. a.
| 1687 S. Colvil Whigs Supplic. (1751) 151 Batrons..Doth fall a fuffing, and a mewing, While monkeys are the chesnuts chewing. a 1693 Urquhart Rabelais iii. xiii. 107 Mioling of Tygers, bruzzing of Bears, sussing [read fuffing (Jam.)] of Kitnings. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 231, ‘I should hae said something in return, but..I was like to fa' to the fuffing and greeting.’ 1895 Crockett Men of Mosshags 165 ‘Them that steals..burns in muckle hell—bleezin' up in fuffin' lowes.’ |
▪ III. fuff, int. Sc.
(fʌf)
a. Used to imitate a sound. b. An exclamation of contempt.
| 1780 Mayne Siller Gun ii. xli, Fuff play'd the priming—heels owr ither, They fell in shairn! 1804 W. Tarras Poems 4 Fuff, Robie man! chear up your dowie saul! |