▪ I. puff, n.
(pʌf)
Forms: 3, 6 puf, 3–7 puffe, 6 pufe, Sc. pwf, 5– puff.
[n. of action cognate with puff v. q.v.]
1. a. An act of puffing; a short impulsive blast of breath or wind; an abrupt emission of air, vapour, or smoke; a whiff. Also fig. † by puffs (quot. 1579), by fits and starts, intermittently.
(A possible OE. instance of pyf has been suggested as the original reading in K. ælfred's Boeth. xx. (1899) 47: Ac seo orsorhnes gæð scyrmælum swæðer windes [pyf]; where MS. B has ðyf = þyf, perh. for pyf. See Napier in P.B. Beitr. XXIV. 245 Note 1. Others would read ðys or þys = ON. þyss uproar, tumult.)
| a 1255 Ancr. R. 122 Hwo nule þunchen þeonne wunder of an ancre þet a windes puf of a word auelleð? Ibid. 142 Þes deofles puffes, þet beoð temptaciuns. a 1400 Hylton Scala Perf. (W. de W.) ii. xviii. (1507) P iv, A lityl puffe of wynde..sholde soone caste hym downe. 1530 Palsgr. 259/1 Puffe of wynde, boufflee. 1579 Tomson Calvin's Serm. Tim. 435/1 It is not inough for a man to teache by puffes, but he must frame himself neuer to bee wearie in taking paines to edifie the Church of God. 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 66 Eeche pipling puf doth amaze me. 1667 J. Flavel Saint Indeed (1754) 60 Like a candle blown out with a puff of breath. 1781 Cowper Conversation 245 The pipe, with solemn interposing puff, Makes half a sentence at a time enough. 1842 Macaulay Ess., Fredk. Gt. (1887) 695 Between the puffs of the pipe. 1887 Bowen Virg. æneid iii. 357 Canvases heave and swell with the puff of the South wind gale. |
b. An act of puffing as an expression of contempt; a scornful gesture.
| 1585 Stow Surv. (1908) I. p. lxv, We aunswered it was by act of comon counsayle, whereat he made a pufe. 1598 Dallington Meth. Trav. B iv, This is a better purchase then the Italian huffe of the shoulder, or the Dutch puffe with the pot, or the French apishnes, which many Trauellers bring home. |
c. The sound of an abrupt or explosive emission of air, or the like.
| 1834 J. Forbes Laennec's Dis. Chest. (ed. 4) 309 The phenomenon which I have termed the auricular puff, simple, or veiled, frequently accompanies the cavernous respiration and cough. 1856 Kane Arct. Expl. I. xxx. 411 [Walrus] rising at intervals through the ice in a body, and breaking it up with an explosive puff that might have been heard for miles. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 1021 This murmur..may be a short systolic ‘puff’ having a very limited area of audibility. |
d. concr. A small quantity of vapour, smoke, or the like, emitted at one momentary blast; a whiff.
| 1839 tr. Lamartine's Trav. East 12/1 Giving to the wind the puffs of smoke from their pipes of red clay. 1858 Longfellow M. Standish v. 32 Suddenly from her side..Darted a puff of smoke, and floated seaward. 1869 Phillips Vesuv. iv. 118 Puffs of vapour were rising at various points. |
e. slang and
dial. Breath, ‘wind’.
| 1827 Sporting Mag. XXI. 137 Taking the puff out of most of the nags. 1863 W. C. Baldwin Afr. Hunting ix. 387 Sustaining three more savage charges, the last..far from pleasant, as my horse had all the puff taken out of him. |
f. Criminals' slang (
orig. U.S.). Explosive powder or dynamite used for blowing open a safe.
| 1904 ‘No. 1500’ Life in Sing Sing 251/1 Puff, explosive powder. 1926 J. Black You can't Win ix. 107, I always crush into these powder shacks for my ‘puff’. |
g. colloq. Life, span of existence;
usu. in
phr. in (all) one's puff and
varr., in all one's life.
| 1921 [see cheerio int.]. 1922 Joyce Ulysses 338 You never saw the like of it in all your born puff. 1929 Wodehouse Mr. Mulliner Speaking ix. 301 ‘Did you ever see a hat like that, Stinker?’ ‘Never in my puff,’ replied his friend. 1938 ― Code of Woosters vii. 156 Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher? 1960 K. Martin Matter of Time 165 That sort of thing's never happened to me in my puff. 1967 A. L. Lloyd Folk Song in England iv. 226 Hannah Snell..served for years as a marine..took a public house in Wapping and wore trousers for the rest of her puff. 1972 ‘A. Armstrong’ One Jump Ahead i. 9 Here's me actually going to dial nine-nine-nine! Never in all me puff would I've thought it! |
2. a. A swelling caused by inflation or otherwise; a blister, tumour, protuberance, excrescence.
| 1538 Elyot Dict., Hecta,..a lyttelle puffe, whiche riseth in breadde whanne it is baken. Ibid., Clauus,..also puffes growing in the stemmis of great trees. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xvii. (1887) 76 The vehement vpright wrastling..taketh awaie fatnesse, puffes, and swellinges. 1676 Marvell Mr. Smirke 21 Having thus plumed him of that puffe of Feathers, with which he buoy'd himself up in the Aire. 1715 Leoni Palladio's Archit. (1742) I. 5 The Iron to be without knots, puffs, or flaws. 1897 M. Kingsley W. Africa 59 Men and women alike wear armlets, and in..the women..you see puffs of flesh growing out from between them. |
b. In costume, A rounded soft protuberant mass formed by gathering in the stuff at the edges and leaving it full in the middle as if inflated; now
usu. with reference to the sleeves of a dress;
= puff sleeve, sense 9 b below. Also, a similar mass formed of ribbons or small feathers, or by rolling in the ends of the hair on the head.
| a 1601 ? Marston Pasquil & Kath. i. 124 Nor doe I enuie Polyphemian puffes, Swizars slopt greatnesse. 1606 Sir G. Goosecappe iii. ii. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 52 See my wife..Busied to starch her French purles, and her puffs. 1617 [see puffed ppl. a. 1 b]. 1666–7 Pepys Diary 4 Feb., Mrs. Steward, very fine, with her locks done up with puffes, as my wife calls them. 1688 R. Holme Armoury iii. 98/1 Half Sleeves..are made..with Puffs, or ruffled in the turn-up. 1729 Mrs. Delany in Life & Corr. (1861) I. 244 Her lappets tied with puffs of scarlet ribbon. 1860 Illustr. Lond. News 26 May 510/2 Bonnets..with velvet flowers and delicious puffs, composed of a mass of small feathers. 1884 B. Potter Jrnl. 2 Apr. (1966) 78 Tight long sleeves with puffs to put on over them. 1889 Latest News 5 Sept. 7 Puff of muslin, forming a panier. 1900 Westm. Gaz. 20 Sept. 3/2 The beautifully arranged forehead puff that almost all Parisians affect. 1908 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Green Gables xi. 114 They all had puffed sleeves..it was awfully hard there among the others who had really truly puffs. 1968 J. Ironside Fashion Alphabet 58 Puff, a short sleeve, gathered into the shoulder and into a band above the elbow. |
c. A low padded seat or cushion;
= pouf1 3.
| 1877 H. James American xii. 195 Valentin was sitting on a puff. Ibid. 206 Then she gave a little push to the puff that stood near her, and by a glance at Newman seemed to indicate that she had placed it in position for him. |
d. Cytology. A short swollen region of a polytene chromosome, active in RNA synthesis.
Cf. puffed ppl. a. 1 d;
puffing vbl. n. 3 c.
| 1937 C. B. Bridges in Cytologia (Fujii Jubilee Vol.) II. 751 Sections 58E and F show another characteristic peculiarity—namely, they often are converted into a much swollen light-staining ‘puff’ in which the banding is very hard to see. 1957 Proc. Nat. Acad. Sci. XLIII. 964 The correlation between the secretory activity in certain cells and the appearance and disappearance of puffs at specific loci in these cells had led many authors to the hypothesis that the genes at the locus of the puff may be actively controlling the secretory process. 1966 Proc. R. Soc. B. CLXIV. 284 The two different kinds of ‘puff’: (1)..the multi-stranded true puffs, which occur only in giant chromosomes: and (2)..the single-stranded loop ‘puff’ of lampbrush chromosomes. 1974 Cold Spring Harbor Symp. Quantitative Biol. XXXVIII. 660/2 Puffs result from the accumulation of RNA and proteins at a band which is being transcribed. |
3. a. A kind of fungus;
= puff-ball 1.
dial.| 1538 Elyot Dict., Tuber, a puffe growyng on the ground lyke a musherone or spunge. 1578 Lyte Dodoens iii. i. 313 The rootes be round and swollen like to a Puffe or Turnep. 1601 Holland Pliny II. 133 All the sort of those Puffes and Toadstooles. 1847–78 Halliwell, Puff, a puff-ball. |
† b. Some kind of apple: also called
puffin1 (sense 3).
| 1655 Moufet & Bennet Health's Impr. (1746) 291 Apples be so divers of Form and Substance..; some consist more of Air than Water, as your Puffs called Mala pulmonea. |
4. † a. An instrument like a small bellows, formerly used for blowing powder upon the hair.
Obs. b. A small pad of down or other flossy substance, for applying powder to the hair or skin. More fully
powder-puff.
| 1658 Songs Costume (Percy Soc.) 163 To eject powder in your hayre, Here is a pritty puff. 1712 Steele Spect. No. 478 ¶13 On the other [side], Powder Baggs, Puffs, Combs and Brushes. 1758 Johnson Idler No. 5 ¶11 If the hair has lost its powder, a lady has a puff. 1822–34 Good's Study Med. (ed. 4) IV. 507 The pediculus pubis is best destroyed by calomel mixed with starch powder, and applied by means of a down puff. 1908 Lady 10 Dec. 1106/3 ‘Beauty Box’ containing..one box of face powder, with swansdown puff,..is sent post free. |
† c. A small vessel for sprinkling scent.
Obs.| 1436 in Test. Ebor. (Surtees) II. 15 note, Unum puff argenti pro aqua rosarum spargenda. |
5. A name for various kinds of very light pastry or confectionery; now
esp. a piece of puff-paste (usually three-cornered), or a light porous cake, enclosing jam or the like; also, a light confection resembling a macaroon. In
quot. 1908
= puff-paste. (So
LG. puffe,
puffe-brodt.)
| 1419 Liber Albus (Rolls) I. 353 Panis levis qui dicitur ‘pouf’. 1769 Mrs. Raffald Eng. Housekpr. (1778) 164 To make German Puffs. 1771 E. Haywood New Present 195 Lemon Puffs..Chocolate Puffs..Ratafia Puffs. 1795 Southey Lett. fr. Spain (1808) II. 11 The hostess there had just made some puffs, and begged me to eat one. a 1845 Hood Sweets of Youth 3, I used to revel in a pie, or puff. 1864 Jam-puffs [see jam n.2 c]. 1908 Westm. Gaz. 15 Aug. 7/1 In pastry nothing is so heavy as puff that has failed. |
6. fig. a. An inflated speech or piece of display; an empty or vain boast; vainglory or pride; vain show, showy adornment; inflation of style, bombast; brag, bluff. ?
Obs.| 1567 Drant Horace, Art Poetry A iij, Put out no puffes, nor thwackyng words. 1631 R. H. Arraignm. Whole Creature xix. 331 The Idolatrous Philistins..all in their Puffe, and Iollity, swelling with pompe and pride. 1680 H. More Apocal. Apoc. 250 A blind puff of pride and vanity of Mind. 1747 W. Horsley Fool (1748) II. 166 It's all Puff, he has but a very indifferent Person. 1814 Sporting Mag. XLIII. 93 A real or pretended challenge..generally believed, how⁓ever, to be mere puff. 1819 Scott Let. to Ld. Montagu 3 Oct. in Lockhart Life, We gave our carriage such additional dignity as a pair of leaders could add, and went to meet him [Prince Leopold] in full puff. 1821 Arnold Let. 25 Apr. in Stanley Life & Corr. I. 65 Any thing like puff, or verbal ornament, I cannot bring myself to. |
† b. Anything empty, vain, or unsubstantial; a ‘thing of nought’. (
Cf. breath.)
Obs.| 1580 Babington Exp. Lord's Prayer (1596) 46 He careth not for the puffes of this world, birth, beautie, wealth or wit. 1583 Golding Calvin on Deut. cxciii. 1197 A man would haue thought, that all that euer had beene done in the person of Dauid had been but a puffe. 1606 Sylvester Du Bartas ii. iv. iii. Magnif. 336 Honour is but a puffe, Life but a vapour. |
7. Undue or inflated praise or commendation, uttered or written in order to influence public estimation; an extravagantly laudatory advertisement or review of a book, a performer or performance, a tradesman's goods, or the like.
(In
quot. 1602 the inflated praise of a flatterer.)
| [1602 Marston Ant. & Mel. iv. Wks. 1856 I. 46 Blowne up with the flattering puffes Of spungy sycophants.] 1732 London Mag. I. 81 Puff is a cant word for the applause that writers and Book-sellers give their own books &c. to promote their sale. 1742 Cibber Let. to Pope 5, I am really driven to it (as the Puff in the Play-Bill says) At the Desire of several Persons of Quality. 1774 J. Wesley Let. 8 Jan. (1931) VI. 66, I suppose Mr. Rivington's advertisement is only a puff, as the booksellers call it. 1774 Goldsm. Retal. 110 The puff of a dunce, he mistook it for fame. 1779 Sheridan Critic i. ii. 1794 C. Pigott Female Jockey Club 78 The amount..is consumed in paying newspaper puffs. 1822 J. Robison Syst. Mechanical Philos. II. 47 His encomiums..are to a great degree extravagant, resembling more the puff of an advertising tradesman than the patriotic communications of a gentleman. 1827 Scott Jrnl. 13 Dec., My name would be only useful in the way of puff, for I really know nothing of the subject. 1889 Ruskin Præterita III. iv. 159 The last puffs written for a morning concert. 1916 A. Huxley Let. 29 Dec. (1969) 118, I lighted in to-day's Morning Post on a little puff of myself, apropos of Oxford Poetry, '16. 1923 E. Wallace Captains of Souls xlvii. 258 ‘Ambrose Sault was executed at Wechester Jail..Billet was the executioner.’ The hangman always received his puff. 1960 Punch 16 Mar. 383/2 Students are advised to omit fine language, puffs for the product, or any form of cosy get-togetherness. 1974 S. Chitty Beast & Monk iii. iv. 229 In January 1864 Kingsley reviewed Volumes VII and VIII of Froude's History of England.., no doubt with a view to giving his brother-in-law a ‘puff’. |
8. Applied to a person.
a. One who brags or behaves insolently, or who is puffed up or swollen with pride or vanity; a boaster, a braggart.
arch.| 1599 B. Jonson Cynthia's Rev. iii. iii, The one a light voluptuous reueller, The other, a strange arrogating puffe, Both impudent and ignorant inough. a 1661 Fuller Worthies, Norfolk (1662) ii. 253 John Fastolfe, Knight..the Stage hath been overbold with his memory, making him a Thrasonical Puff, and emblem of Mock-valour. 1850 Whipple Ess. & Rev. (ed. 3) I. 392 The age groaned under a company of lewd, shallow-brained puffs, wretches who seemed to have sinned themselves into another kind of species. |
† b. One who praises extravagantly or unduly,
esp. from interested motives; a writer of puffs:
= puffer 2.
Obs.| 1751 Chesterfield Lett. 10 June (1774) III. 199 Lady Hervey, who is your puff and panegyrist, writes me word..that you dance very genteelly. 1764 Foote Patron i. Wks. 1799 I. 337 The fellow has got a little in flesh, by being puff to the play-house this winter. 1789 Sheridan Critic i. i, [Name of a character] Mr. Puff, a gentleman well known in the theatrical world. |
c. slang. A decoy in a gambling-house.
| 1731 Gentl. Mag. I. 25/1 Officers established in the most notorious Gaming-Houses... 5. Two Puffs, who have Money given 'em to decoy others to play. 1755 Mem. Capt. P. Drake II. x. 225, I..now and then ventured a Guinea at the other Banks in Earnest, to prevent any Suspicion of my being a Puff. |
d. [See also
poof n.1] An effeminate man; a male homosexual.
| 1902 Farmer & Henley Slang V. 313/1 Puff... 3 (tramps'), a sodomist. 1937 Partridge Dict. Slang 665/2 Puff,..a sodomist. 1961 P. White Riders in Chariot xi. 414 It was that puf Mortimer would not let me alone. 1967 H. W. Sutherland Magnie iv. 63 He'd be a puff boy, this Magnie, and God knows what entertainment he laid on for Arthur. 1974 P. Wright Lang. Brit. Industry xi. 95 An infuriated spectator may shout at a plump, sleek referee, ‘You nasty little ponce!’ (or puff). |
9. attrib. and
Comb. (Some of these may be from the stem of
puff v.)
† a. attrib. or as adj. That is like a puff in senses 2–6. Puffed, inflated, swelling (
lit. and
fig.).
Obs.| 1472 in Swayne Sarum Churchw. Acc. (1896) 1, j pall of blew puffe feathers in manner of scaloppys. 1598 E. Guilpin Skial. i. (1878) 36 Like a Swartrutters hose his puffe thoughts swell, With yeastie ambition. 1598 Marston Sco. Villanie ii. vii, Mean'st thou that wasted leg, puffe bumbast boot? |
b. Comb., as (sense 1)
puff-roar,
puff-train,
puff-wind; (sense 2 b)
puff scarf,
puff sleeve;
puff-sleeved adj.; (sense 5)
puff-tart; (sense 7)
puff-master,
puff merchant,
puff-purveyor,
puff-trap,
puff writer,
puff-writing;
† puff-bagged a., wearing puffed ‘bags’ or breeches;
puff billiards, a game resembling billiards, in which a ball is driven about on a table by puffs of air;
puff box, a box to hold toilet-powder and a powder-puff;
puff-breeches, puffed or inflated breeches;
† puff-cole, a variety of cole or cabbage (see
quot.);
† puff-doctrine, vain or empty doctrine;
puff-fish, a fish of either the
Tetrodontidæ or
Diodontidæ; also called, from their habit of inflating themselves with air,
globe-fish,
swell-fish, or
puffer; in
quot. a
Tetrodon;
puff-leg, a humming-bird of the genus
Eriocnemis, having tufts of down upon the legs;
puff-netting = leaf-netting (see
leaf n.1 18);
puff-pig, local name in Newfoundland for the porpoise (
= puffing-pig,
s.v. puffing ppl. a. 1);
puff pipe, (
a) a short pipe connected to a trap or valve in a drainage system in order to ventilate it; (
b) on a vertical takeoff aircraft, a pipe out of which compressed air is blown in order to control attitude;
puff port, on a hovercraft, a vent out of which compressed air is blown in order to control attitude;
† puff-ring, (
app.) a counterfeit ring made hollow instead of solid;
puff-shark, a Californian species of dog-fish,
Catulus uter;
puff-shouldered a., having puffs (sense 2 b) on the shoulders;
puff-stone, local name for the soft porous marlstone of the Middle Lias;
puff-throated a., having a puffed or inflated throat;
puff-wig, a puffed or full wig;
† puff-wing, an inflated or prominent ‘wing’ or projection on the shoulder of a dress.
| 1653 Urquhart Rabelais ii. ii, Great drops of water, such as fall from a *puff-bagged man in a top sweat. |
| 1897 *Puff billiards [see indoor, in-door a. 1]. 1901 Commercial Advertiser (N.Y.) 11 May 12/5 Mrs. Hwfa Williams is said to have invented puff-billiards. 1953 P. L. Fermor Violins of Saint-Jacques 74 Usually some newly arrived acquisition from Paris occupied the centre of the room—a magic lantern, a kaleidoscope or..a game of puff-billiards. |
| 1895 Mongomery Ward Catal. Spring–Summer 259/1 *Puff boxes, made of papier mache{ddd}$0.20. 1926–7 Army & Navy Stores Catal. 99 Puff Boxes. |
| c 1843 Carlyle Hist. Sk. Jas. I & Chas. I (1898) 260 The huge *puff-breeches of the time. |
| 1620 Venner Via Recta vii. 135 The top-leaues and heads of Cole that are but a little closed, which we commonly call *Puffe-cole. |
| 1629 H. Burton Truth's Triumph 11 This Pontifician *puffe-doctrine of preparatory workes. |
| 1885 A. Brassey The Trades 407 There were little *puff-fish, sometimes as round as a puff-ball, sometimes as flat as a pancake. |
| 1874 Wood Nat. Hist. 318 The Copper-bellied *Puff-leg... The ‘puffs’..look like refined swan's down. |
| 1762 Harangues Celebr. Quack-Doctors Ed. Let., To the Orator of Orators, and *Puff-Master-General of Lincoln's-Inn-Fields. |
| 1951 R. Chandler Let. 6 July (1966) 143 *Puff merchants..will go on record over practically anything including the World Almanac, provided they get their names featured. |
| 1882 *Puff Netting [see leaf-netting s.v. leaf n.1 18]. |
| 1861 L. L. Noble Icebergs 91 At the mention of the *puff-pig, the local name for the common porpoise, we indulged ourselves in a childish laugh. |
| 1894 A. J. Wallis-Tayler Sanitary Arrangement of Dwelling-Houses ix. 58 A *puff-pipe, about one inch in diameter, should be taken from the valve-box through the outer wall, and its free end be also fitted with a brass flap-valve. 1934 Archit. Rev. Jan. p. xliv, Puff pipes, always a doubtful practice, although admissable, under certain conditions, are..here abolished and the terminals of the vent pipes being fixed high above all openings to the building ensure a strong current of fresh air throughout the system. 1960 Aeroplane XCVIII. 572/1 (diagram) Pilot controls..attitude and yaw via ‘puff-pipes’. 1965 J. L. Nayler Aviation xiii. 188/2 Control in hovering flight was obtained by the ‘puff-pipe’ system first used in the Flying Bedstead. 1972 J. Hastings Plumber's Compan. 133 In Wiltshire the ornamental end of a puff pipe is a snake's mouth. |
| 1967 Jane's Surface Skimmer Systems 1967–68 37/1 *Puff ports, to improve in particular low-speed yaw control, and segmented skirts will be incorporated. 1971 R. L. Trillo Marine Hovercraft Technol. v. 93 Puff ports used on the Parkhouse Beckingham Hovercat to assist in directional control also provided rolling moment causing the craft to roll into a turn, thereby enhancing the comfort of the turning manoeuvre. |
| 1908 Athenæum 11 Apr. 442/2 According to Hazlitt,..the rejected *puff-purveyor was none other than Charles Lamb. |
| 1534 More Comf. agst. Trib. iii. Wks. 1228/1 Like a *puffe rynge of Paris, holowe, lighte and counterfait in deede. 1592 Greene Upst. Courtier G j b, Puffe ringes, and quaint conceits. |
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 57 East, weast and Southwynd, with *pufroare mightelye ramping. |
| 1880 Amer. Mail Order Fashions in Americana Rev. (1961) 32 New *puff-scarf, satin faced and lined. |
| 1908 C. F. Holder Big Game at Sea 118 (Illustration), The *Puff Shark of California and Its Eggs. |
| 1899 A. Conan Doyle Duet i. 7 A roomful of *puff-shouldered young ladies. |
| 1894 B. Potter Jrnl. (1966) 314, I had to take his arm in to dinner, not much encouraged by his scrutiny of my *puff-sleeves. 1975 G. Howell In Vogue 151/2 Little-girl dresses..with..full short skirts, tucks, smocking and puff sleeves. |
| 1883 ‘Mark Twain’ Life on Mississippi xxxviii. 404 Grandpa and grandma..stiff, old-fashioned, high-collared, *puff-sleeved. 1969 Observer 21 Dec. 23/4 This smocked, puff-sleeved blouse. |
| c 1640 J. Smyth Hundred of Berkeley (1885) 175 In this towne [Dursley] is a rocke of a strange stone called a *Puffe stone. 1742 De Foe's Tour Gt. Brit. (ed. 3) II. 252 That soft, easy-to-be wrought Stone at Great Banington, called Puff-stone, prodigiously strong and lasting. 1829 Glover's Hist. Derby I. 100 Tufa, tophus, puff-stone or marl stone is a porous soft stone. |
| 1906 Westm. Gaz. 4 Aug. 5/3 Before each man was a *puff tart and a glass of ginger-beer. |
| 1863 Bates Nat. Amazon ii. (1864) 36 A species of *puff-throated manikin, a little bird which flies occasionally across the road. |
| 1896 Swinburne Let. 29 May (1962) VI. 100 When the ‘*puff-train’ did ‘anything particularly startling or loud’. |
| 1796 Mod. Gulliver's Trav. 172 News-paper, *puff-trap, yields supply of game. |
| 1702 Farquhar Inconstant i. i, Here, sirrah, here's ten guineas for thee; get thyself a drugget suit and a *puff-wig, and so I dub thee Gentleman-Usher. |
| 1582 Stanyhurst æneis ii. (Arb.) 69 Much lyk to a *pufwynd, or nap that vannished hastlye. |
| 1601 B. Jonson Poetaster iv. i, You shall see 'hem flock about you with their *puffe wings, and aske you, where you bought your lawne. |
| 1870 T. A. Brown Hist. Amer. Stage 21/2 In September he quit the business, and soon after obtained the situation of ‘*puff writer’ for the Bowery Amphitheatre. |
| 1807 Southey Espriella's Lett. III. 58 *Puff-writing is one of the strange trades in London. |
Sense 2 d in
Dict. becomes 2 e. Add:
[2.] d. A lightweight bed-covering filled with cotton, down, or some other material; a quilted coverlet or duvet. Chiefly
N. Amer.| 1907 Dialect Notes III. 248 Puff, a bed covering filled with cotton. Recent. 1939 L. M. Montgomery Anne of Ingleside viii. 52 Mrs Parker considerately left a candle with him and a warm puff, for the July night was unreasonably cold. 1976 New Yorker 3 May 40/1 ‘I'll say one thing about that old puff,’ she says. ‘I spent many a night of our marriage sewing the panels where they were ripped.’ 1986 R. B. Parker Taming Sea-Horse (1987) x. 63 An unfolded sofa bed unmade with..silk sheets and a pale gray puff comforter. |
▪ II. puff, v. (
pʌf)
Forms: 3–5
puffe(n, 4–7
poff(e, 5
pouff(e, 5–7
puffe, 7–
puff.
Pa. tense and
pple. puffed (
pʌft); 3, 6
pufte (
pa. tense), 4
poffed, 6
poffte (
pa. pple.), 5–9
puft.
[ME. puf n. and puffen vb. appear together in Ancren Riwle, early in 13th c., as well-established words, the verb implying an OE. *puffian, existing beside the recorded form pyffan (imper. pyf, pa. tense pyfte):—OTeut. *puffôjan and *puffjan. (Or OE. pyffan might perh. itself give ME. puffen in the same way as OE. kycgel appears in Ancren R. as cuggel, later cudgel.) Of onomatopœic origin, representing the action and sound of emitting from the lips a puff of breath. Kindred forms, either from OTeut. or formed afresh, appear in MDu. puffen to puff, blow, early mod.Du. pof ‘bucca, buccarum inflatio; bombus, flatus, sclopus’ (Kilian); pof ‘puff’, pofbal ‘ball blown or puffed up’ (Hexham); poffen, ‘flare, sufflare, buccas inflare; turgere, ampullari’ (Kilian); ‘to puf, blow, swell up, to boast, brag, vaunt’ (Hexham). Other senses of
puffen,
poffen, in
LG. and
Du., and thence in
mod.Ger.,
Da.,
Sw., as to strike with an audible knock, to pop, thump, bang, crack, or simply to strike, and of the cogn.
n. in the corresponding sense of an audible blow, etc., may have been developed from the same original word, or may be later echoic formations expressive of sudden noise;
cf. F.
pouf, ‘an exclamation expressing the noise of something falling’, with derived
vb. pouffer; also F.
soufflet, from
souffler to blow.]
1. a. intr. To blow with a short abrupt blast or blasts; to emit a puff of air or breath; to escape as a puff.
to puff out,
puff up, to issue, arise in puffs.
| [Cf. c 1000 in Napier OE. Glosses i. 1886, Spirantis, i. sufflantis, [gl.] piffendes. Ibid. 4931 Exalauit, ut apyfte. Ibid. xviii. 42 Efflauit, pyfte. c 1000 in Techmer's Ztschr. (1885) II. 121 Pyf on þinne scyte finger.] |
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 124 Vor nouðer ne mei þe wind..fulen þine soule þauh hit puffe on þe, bute ȝif þi sulf hit makie. c 1384 Chaucer H. Fame iii. 776 Eolus..toke his blake trumpe faste And gan to puffen and to blaste. 1576 Fleming Panopl. Epist. 350 When the windes cease puffing. 1600 Shakes. A.Y.L. iii. v. 50 Like foggy South, puffing with winde and raine. 1656 Trapp Comm. Jas. iv. 14 Thy breath is in thy nostrils, ever ready to puff out. 1841 Borrow Zincali i. xi. §1. 53 The bellows puff until the coal is excited to a furious glow. 1865 Baring-Gould Werewolves vii, The air puffing up off the blue twinkling Bay of Biscay. |
b. (
a) To breathe quick and hard, as when out of breath from running or other exertion; to breathe hard, pant violently; often,
to puff and blow; hence, to run or go with puffing or panting. Also (
b)
trans. with
out: to utter breathlessly or with panting (
quot. 1599); (
c)
trans. in
causal sense: to cause to puff, to put out of breath (chiefly in
pa. pple.: see
puffed 3).
| 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. xiii. 87 He shal haue a penaunce in his paunche and puffe at ech a worde. 1581 Mulcaster Positions xxxiii. (1887) 119 To be hoat and chafe, to puffe and blow, to sweat. 1599 Nashe Lenten Stuffe (1871) 59 [He] came lazily waddling in, and puffed out, Pork, Pork, Pork. 1607 Shakes. Cor. ii. i. 230 Flamins Doe..puffe To winne a vulgar station. 1710 Addison Tatler No. 165 ¶4 Puffing and blowing as if..very much out of Breath. 1806–7 J. Beresford Miseries Hum. Life (1826) v. xvii, After toiling and puffing up to the very top of the building. 1898 Allbutt's Syst. Med. V. 955 They puff after trains. |
c. To send forth puffs or whiffs of vapour or smoke, as a steam-engine, or a person smoking tobacco; to move
away,
in,
out, with puffing, as a locomotive or steamboat.
| 1781 Cowper Conversation 248 The dozing sages drop the drowsy strain, Then pause and puff—and speak, and pause again. 1849 D. G. Mitchell Battle Summer (1852) 222 The railway engines are puffing out of Paris. 1861 Hughes Tom Brown at Oxf. iii, Sanders..puffed away at his cigar. 1870 Mrs. J. H. Riddell Austin Friars i, Where the trains now go puffing in and out of Cannon Street Terminus. 1894 Outing (U.S.) XXIV. 372/2 A light rain was falling as the steamer puffed away from the South Stack Lighthouse. |
d. Of a fungus: to discharge a cloud of spores suddenly.
| 1887 H. E. F. Garnsey tr. A. de Bary's Compar. Morphol. & Biol. Fungi iii. 89 As long as the Fungus remains shut up in the damp atmosphere no amount of shaking will cause it to puff. 1953 C. T. Ingold Dispersal in Fungi ii. 27 Once an apothecium has puffed it cannot, as a rule, be induced to do so again for a time. |
† 2. intr. To blow abruptly from the lips as an expression of contempt or scorn; to say ‘pooh!’ or the like; to speak or behave scornfully or insolently, to swagger.
to puff at, to express contempt of, to defy scornfully, to pooh-pooh.
Obs.| c 1489 Caxton Sonnes of Aymon i. 25 Yf ye hadde seen hym chaunge his colour, pouff, blowe, as a man cruell prowde and owterageouse. 1575 Laneham Let. (1871) 42 The King fumed,..Princes puft, Bar[o]nz blustered, Lordz began too loour. 1611 Bible Ps. x. 5 As for all his enemies, he puffeth at them. c 1620 Z. Boyd Zion's Flowers (1855) 137 Thus lye they low who did most proudly puff. 1677 Otway Cheats of Scapin ii. i, One that frowns, puffs, and looks big at all Mankind. |
3. a. trans. To drive, impel, or agitate by puffing; to blow
away,
down,
off,
out,
up, etc. with a quick short blast; to emit (smoke, steam, etc.) in puffs.
| a 1225 Ancr. R. 266 Ȝif a miracle nere þet pufte adun þene deouel þet set on hire so ueste. 1377 Langl. P. Pl. B. v. 16 Piries and plomtrees were puffed [C. vi. 119 poffed] to þe erthe. 1495 Trevisa's Barth. De P.R. xvi. lxxxi. (W. de W.) L viij b/1 Powder..hath that name for it is puft wyth þe wynde. 1567 Drant Horace, Epist. ii. i. G vj, That huffes it vp and puffes it downe. 1582 Stanyhurst æ neis iii. (Arb.) 74 In three days sayling wee shal too Candye be puffed. 1697 Dryden Virg. Georg. i. 623 When the clearing North will puff the Clouds away. 1720 Gay Trivia ii. 191, I thirsty stand.., See them puff off the froth, and gulp amain. 1796 Jane Austen Pride & Prej. xi, My feelings are not puffed about with every attempt to move them. 1867 Trollope Chron. Barset xlvi, As he puffed the cigar-smoke out of his mouth. 1889 Doyle Micah Clarke 138 Bullets which puffed up the white dust all around him. |
† b. To blow short blasts (with mouth or bellows) upon (a fire) to make it burn up.
Obs.| 1610 B. Jonson Alch. ii. i, That's his fire-drake, His lungs, his Zephyrus, he that puffes his coales. 1698 Tutchin Whitehall in Fl. iii, Embers... Which Fate puffs up unto a blaze. a 1763 Shenstone Colemira 52 She..Foments the infant flame, and puffs it into life. |
c. To blow
out, extinguish with a puff.
| 1547 Bk. Marchauntes c ij b, Some poore foole..stycketh vp a candell vpon a pyller, and oure marchaunt anone snatcheth and puffeth it out. 1621 Quarles Argalus & P. (1678) 51 This breath shall puff thee out. 1752 Young Brothers i. i, Those That would make kings, and puff them out at pleasure. 1879 J. Todhunter Alcestis 104 Yet we go out, Like candles puffed, not willingly. We die. |
d. To smoke (a tobacco-pipe or cigar) in intermittent puffs or whiffs.
| 1809 W. Irving Knickerb. iii. iii. (1820) 179 Here the old burgher would sit..puffing his pipe. 1861 Geo. Eliot Silas M. vi, The farrier was puffing his pipe rather fiercely. 1875 H. James R. Hudson i, Rowland..lighted a cigar and puffed it awhile in silence. |
e. To apply powder with a powder-puff: with the powder, or the surface, as object. Also
absol.| 1838 D. Jerrold Men of Character (1851) 5 Job..tried to puff, but his unsteady hand..sent forth the powder above, below, about, but not upon the head. 1909 Lady 7 Jan. 34/3 Afterwards puff on a little rice powder. Ibid. 21 Jan. 116/1 The skin should then be puffed over with her Beauty Powder. |
f. To drive or cause to move with puffing.
| 1903 Smart Set IX. 147/1 He puffed his automobile up the drive. |
4. a. To cause (something) to swell by puffing or blowing air into it; to blow
out or
up; to inflate; to distend by inflation, or in any way, as by stuffing or padding, or, in costume, by bunching up the stuff in rounded masses.
| 1539 in Vicary's Anat. (1888) App. iii. 173 Apparelled in whyte Satten puffed out with crymsen sarcenet. 1592 Greene Def. Conny Catch. Wks. (Grosart) XI. 69 What say you to the Butcher..that hath pollicies to puffe vp his meate to please the eye? 1679 Blount Anc. Tenures 11 He should dance, puff up his Cheeks, making therewith a sound. 1735 Somerville Chase iii. 561 The Huntsman..puffs his Cheeks in vain. 1774 Goldsm. Nat. Hist. (1776) VII. 152 This method of puffing itself up, is similar to that in pigeons, whose crops are sometimes greatly distended with air. 1899 Allbutt's Syst. Med. VII. 618 The cheeks..drawn in and puffed out by the respiratory movements. |
b. intr. To swell
up or become distended or swollen.
| 1725 Bradley's Fam. Dict. s.v. Lemon, Should the Lemon-Slips happen to puff or turn sower in the Vessels, wherein they are kept. Ibid. s.v. Sweetmeats, Wet Sweetmeats are..subject to sour and puff, which proceeds from the moistness of the fruit. 1737 Bracken Farriery Impr. (1757) II. 238 They [wind-galls] will not rise and puff up. 1804 Med. Jrnl. XII. 119 When exposed..to a gradually increased fire, it [opium] begins to melt and to puff up. |
c. trans. To adorn with puffs; to dress the hair in puffs. See
puff n. 2 b.
| 1891 S. J. Duncan Amer. Girl in London 293 The hairdresser..she puffed and curled me. |
5. fig. a. To ‘inflate’ or cause to ‘swell’ with vanity, pride, ambition, or the like; to make vain, proud, or arrogant; to elate, exalt in mind;
rarely, to cause to swell with anger, to enrage (
quots. 1555, 1815). Usually with
up; most commonly in
pa. pple. puffed up.
| 1526 Tindale Col. ii. 18 Causlesse puft vppe with his flesshly mynde. 1535 Coverdale 1 Cor. viii. 2 Knowlege puffeth a man vp, but loue edifyeth. 1555 Eden Decades 240 Kynge Iohn..was puffed vp with anger. 1634 Heywood Maidenhead Lost ii. Wks. 1874 IV. 122 There is no change of Fortune Can puffe me or deiect me. 1681 Dryden Abs. & Achit. i. 480 Not stain'd with cruelty, nor puft with pride. 1724 De Foe Mem. Cavalier (1840) 257 Victory had not puffed him up. 1815 Sporting Mag. XLVI. 156 Being puffed up with rage, they commenced an attack on the temporary paling. 1863 E. V. Neale Anal. Th. & Nat. 223 Its tendency is to puff men up with a persuasion of their own greatness. |
† b. (with
up.) To exalt unduly in position or authority.
Obs.| 1535 Coverdale Judg. ix. 11 Shal I leaue my swetnes and my good frute, and go to be puft vp aboue the trees? 1612 Bacon Ess., Judicature (Arb.) 456 Puffing a Court vp beyond her bounds for their own scrappes and aduantage. 1641 Milton Animadv. xiii. 44 No more then a speciall endorsement could make to puffe up the foreman of a Jury. |
6. a. To praise, extol, or commend in inflated or extravagant terms, usually from interested motives;
esp. to advertise with exaggerated or falsified praise. Also with
off (now
rare or
Obs.).
| 1735 Pope Prol. Sat. 232 Full-blown Bufo, puff'd by ev'ry quill; Fed with soft Dedication all day long. 1749 Chesterfield Lett. 27 Sept. (1775) II. 228 Sir Charles Williams has puffed you (as the mob call it) here extremely. 1750 Ibid. 12 Oct. (1774) III. 55 Where she will..puff you, if I may use so low a word. 1759 S. Fielding C'tess of Dellwyn II. 283 The Captain proceeded..by puffing off himself. 1782 E. N. Blower Geo. Bateman II. 60 To puff his performances into notice. 1799 Med. Jrnl. II. 150 The only way a quack-medicine gets very celebrated, is, by its being constantly puffed off in advertisements. 1813 Scott Fam. Lett. 29 June, Each puffed the other in alternate compliments, which were mutually accepted. 1858 Ld. St. Leonards Handy Bk. Prop. Law ii. 7 You may falsely praise, or, as it is vulgarly termed, puff your property. |
b. absol. (also with dependent clause). To tell or say to the praise of any one.
| c 1750 W. Stroud Mem. 10 He wanted me to..puff for him (as he called it) that he had a large estate in Warwickshire. 1791 Wolcott (P. Pindar) Ode to my Ass x, I could say such things about myself—But God forbid that I should puff! |
c. intr. To bid at an auction for the purpose of inflating or raising the price:
cf. puffer 2 b,
puffing vbl. n. 4 b.
7. Comb., as
† puff-loaf a., that ‘puffs’ loaves,
i.e. causes them to swell up. (See also
prec. 9 b.)
| 1577 Stanyhurst Descr. Irel. iii. in Holinshed (1587) II. 23 The colerake sweeping of a pufloafe baker. |
▪ III. puff, int. (
pʌf)
Also 6
poff.
[Echoic. So also MDu. puf.] A representation of the act of blowing in puffs; also, of blowing abruptly from the lips; hence, an expression of contempt (
cf. pooh).
| c 1460 Towneley Myst. ii. 277 Puf! this smoke dos me mych shame. 1481 Caxton Reynard xxvi. (Arb.) 59 Puf said the foxe,..be ye so sore aferd herof? 1606 Sir G. Goosecappe v. i. in Bullen O. Pl. III. 89 Puffe, is there not a feather in this ayre A man may challenge for her? c 1620 Rowlands Paire of Spy Knaves (Hunter. Cl.) 20 I'le teach thee..To take Tobacco like a Caualeere. Thus draw the vapor thorow your nose, and say, Puffe, it is gone, fuming the smoke away. 1620 Swetnam Arraign'd i. ii. A iv, Puffe, giue me some ayre, I am almost stifled, puffe, Oh, my sides! 1870 M. Bridgman Ro. Lynne I. iv. 55, ‘I have found it so’—puff, puff [smoking a cigar]. |