buff

noun

/bʌf/US/bɐf/

Etymology

From Middle English buffen (“to stutter, stammer”), from Old English byffan (“to mumble, mutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bubjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to fear, to be afraid”). More at bive (“tremble, shake”) and bever.

derived from *bʰeyH-✻ — “to fear, to be afraid”
inherited from *bubjaną✻
inherited from byffan — “to mumble, mutter”
inherited from buffen — “to stutter, stammer”

Definitions

1
Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
- […]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]
A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
3
A brownish yellow colour.
- 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.
- His face changed from tan to buff.
›+ 26 more definitionsshow fewer
1. 4
  A military coat made of buff leather.
  - 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 […]
2. 5
  A person who is very interested in a particular subject.
  - He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.
3. A change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.
4. 7
  An effect that makes a character or item stronger.
  - I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!
5. Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
6. 9
  The bare skin.
  - to strip to the buff
  - To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked.
  - 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.
7. The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
8. 11
  Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.
  - 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.
9. Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
10. 13
  Unusually muscular.
  - The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.
11. 14
  Physically attractive.
  - That's right: I'm taking driver's ed next semester. Hiring an interpreter for CHS and the deaf school outta my own hefty pockets. You're welcome. Oh, and I'm going to get really skinny and buff. All slim like a swimsuit model.
12. 15
  To polish and make shiny by rubbing.
  - He was already buffing the car's hubs.
13. 16
  To make a character or an item stronger.
  - The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.
  - I noticed that the pistols were buffed in the update.
14. To modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner.
15. To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
16. To strip to the bare skin.
17. 20
  To strike.
  - Bravely run Red-hood, / There was a shock, / To have buff’d out the blood / From ought but a block.
18. 21
  A strike
  A strike; a blow.
  - Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel.
  - A man must consider what a blind-man’s-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect I anticipate your argument.
19. To stammer, stutter
20. 23
  A buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo.
  - […] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […]
  - You will eat water buffalo meat and drink boiled water buffalo milk: buff burgers at Aunt Jane's restaurant, buff mo-mos which are the Tibetan won-tons, and buff steaks at The Globe.
21. 24
  Alternative form of buffe (“face armor”).
  - For they had helmets on their heads, fashioned like wild beast's necks, and strange beavers or buffs to the same, and wore on their helmets great high plumes of feathers, as they had been wings : […]
22. 25
  Acronym of big ugly fat fellow (or fucker), US Air Force nickname for the B-52 bomber.
  - The B-52 Stratofortress is not called the Buff because it is painted a tan or dun-brown color.
  - I should note here in polite society it is considered proper to call the B-52 a BUFF for Big Ugly Fat Fella or Fellows
  - Deployed at no higher than 135 knots, the 44-foot drag chute aids in braking the BUFF.
23. A surname.
24. A member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).
25. Clipping of Buffalo nickel.
26. A member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.

The neighborhood

Derived

buff-bellied pipit, buff-breasted sandpiper, buff coat, buffery, buffhood, buffish, buffism, buff jerkin, buff nor stye, Buff Point, buff-tailed bumblebee, buffware, buffy, in the buff, iron buff, railbuff, railway buff, buff-tip moth, buffly, buffster, buffable, buff down, buff out, buff the muffin, buff up, buff wheel, unbuffed, rebuff

Vish — recursive loop

A definitional loop anchored at buff. Each word in the ring is defined by the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself. Scroll to it and watch.

A definitional loop anchored at buff. Each word in the ring appears in the definition of the next; follow the chain far enough and it folds back on itself.

9 hops · closes at buff

curated · pre-corpus. live cycle detection across the full graph is the next major milestone.

sense glosses and etymology drawn from English Wiktionary · source · CC-BY-SA