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fluff

noun
/flʌf/US/flɐf/

Etymology

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe, of uncertain ultimate origin: * Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”); see flaw * Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”). * Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”). For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”), Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

  1. derived from villūtus — “having shaggy hair”
  2. derived from velu — “hairy, furry”
  3. derived from vluwe

Definitions

  1. Anything light, soft or fuzzy, especially fur, hair, feathers.

    • [W]hen I walk in my fields I can see, down Berwick way, the little fluffs of white smoke which tell me of this strange new hundred-legged beast, with coals for food and a thousand men in its belly, for ever crawling over the border.

  2. Anything inconsequential or superficial.

    • That article was basically a bunch of fluff. It didn't say anything substantive.

  3. A lapse or mistake, especially a mistake in an actor's lines.

  4. ›+ 16 more definitions

    1. A cloth diaper.

    2. Marshmallow creme.

      • That New England-style salami and fluff sandwich sure hit the spot!

    3. A passive partner in a lesbian relationship.

    4. A fart.

    5. Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually…

      Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance.

      • And when something triggers, I can close the window and go read fluff for hours until I calm down.
      • Fans prefer fluff to other types of fic. But angst (dramatic stories where characters have a wide range of emotions, including...angsty ones) comes in close second.
      • Ah, fluff. My happy place. These fics are dedicated to feel-good feelings, which are the very best type of feelings.

    6. A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot

      A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot; often used in the context of (but not limited to) filling time.

    7. Short change deliberately given by a railway clerk, to keep back money for himself.

      • "What?" cried the counter-man, indignantly. "Been a railwayman all these years, and don't know what fluff is? Why, 'pon me word, you deserve to get the sack!"

    8. To make something fluffy.

      • The cat fluffed its tail.

    9. To become fluffy, puff up.

    10. To move lightly like fluff.

      • She gave the music-stool a twirl or two and fluffed down on to it like a whirl of soap-suds in a hand-basin.

    11. To make a mistake in one's lines.

    12. To do incorrectly, for example mishit, miskick, miscue etc.

      • Either side of Rooney's fluffed chance, it was a tale of Ukrainian domination as they attacked England down both flanks and showed the greater fluidity of the teams.

    13. To break wind, to fart.

    14. To arouse (a male pornographic actor) before filming.

      • To get Lance Bronson hard, Chi Chi, in desperation, called Sharon Kane to come and fluff him on the set. People were always asking me how they could get a job as a fluffer.

    15. To bring to a state of excitement.

    16. To deliberately shortchange (a railway customer) and keep the money for oneself.

      • A genial counter-man told Mr. Manners that, if he played artful, he might even now obtain the position of outside porter; you got no pay there, but you could gain a moderate competency by fluffing.

The neighborhood

Derived

autofluff, ball of fluff, bit of fluff, bumfluff, defluff, duckfluff, floof, fluffball, fluff bunny, fluffernutter, fluffery, fluffhead, fluffiness, fluffless, flufflike, flufftail, fluff-up, fluffy, Local Fluff, marshmallow fluff, fluff about, fluff-dry, fluffer, fluff girl, fluff off, fluff one's feathers, fluff one's lines, fluff out, fluff up, refluff, unfluffed

Vish — recursive loop

No curated loop yet for fluff. Loops are being traced one word at a time while the ingestion pipeline matures.

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