buffer
UK /ˈbʌfə/ · US /ˈbʌfəɹ/ noun, verb, proper noun
Also a form of buff
Forms buffers buffering buffered
- noun A machine with rotary brushes, passed over a hard floor to clean it.
- noun A machine for polishing shoes and boots.
- noun (slang, archaic, Ireland) A boxer.
- noun (chemistry) A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid, such as by resisting a change in pH when an acid or alkali is added.
- noun (mechanics) Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.
- noun (rail transport) A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
- noun (rail transport) The barrier placed at the end of the track to absorb the impact of a train that fails to stop.
- noun An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
- noun (telecommunications) A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.
- noun (computing) A portion of memory set aside to temporarily store data, often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.
- noun (politics, international relations) A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
- verb To use a buffer or buffers; to attempt to isolate or minimize the effects of one thing or another.
- verb (video games) To queue up (an input) so that it is performed immediately once it is possible. “Some games let you buffer jumps—if you hold the jump button mid-air, your character will jump as soon as they touch the ground.”
- verb (transitive or intransitive, computing) To store (data) in memory temporarily while it is awaiting processing.
- verb (chemistry) To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.
- noun (colloquial) A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
- noun (UK, slang, dated) A dog.
- proper noun A surname
Synonyms
buffer zone fender cowcatcher pilot buffer storage buffer store polisher buff cushion soften
Etymology
From buff + -er.
Agent noun from obsolete verb buff (“make a dull sound when struck”) (mid-16c.), from Old French buffe (“blow”).
The “boatswain's mate” sense is said to be popularly explained by the mate being a “buffer”, that is intermediary, between officers and men, but various other explanations have also been proposed.
In reference to buff leather.
Webster’s 1913
- noun (a) An elastic apparatus or fender, for deadening the jar caused by the collision of bodies; as, a buffer at the end of a railroad car. (b) A pad or cushion forming the end of a fender, which recieves the blow; --sometimes called buffing apparatus.
- noun One who polishes with a buff.
Etymology [Prop a striker. See Buffet a blow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “buffer”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details