buff
/bʌf/ noun, adjective, verb, proper noun
Forms buffs buffer buffest buffing buffed
- noun Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
- noun A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
- noun A brownish yellow colour.
- noun A military coat made of buff leather.
- noun (informal) 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.”
- noun (video games) A change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.
- noun (video games, roleplaying games) An effect that makes a character or item stronger. “I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!”
- noun (rail transport) Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
- adjective Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
- adjective (originally bodybuilding, colloquial) Unusually muscular. “The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.”
- adjective (MLE slang) Physically attractive.
- verb To polish and make shiny by rubbing. “He was already buffing the car's hubs.”
- verb (video games, roleplaying games) To make a character or an item stronger. “The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.”
- verb (medical slang) To modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner.
- verb (graffiti slang) To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
- verb (slang, transitive, archaic) To strip to the bare skin.
- verb To strike.
- noun (obsolete) A strike; a blow.
- verb (dialectal or obsolete) To stammer, stutter
- noun (informal) A buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo.
Synonyms
enthusiast aficionado amateur admirer connoisseur devotee maniac fan fanatic fancier fancy fiend freak geek junkie partisan rooter zealot revamp buffed lover yellowish brown raw sienna caramel caramel brown buffer buffet burnish furbish
Antonyms
Etymology
From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
From Old French bufer (“to cuff, buffet”). See buffet (“a blow”).
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.
Clipping of buffalo.
Webster’s 1913
- noun A sort of leather, prepared from the skin of the buffalo, dressed with oil, like chamois; also, the skins of oxen, elks, and other animals, dressed in like manner. "A suit of buff." Shak.
- noun The color to buff; a light yellow, shading toward pink, gray, or brown.
- adjective Made of buff leather. Goldsmith.
- adjective Of the color of buff. Buff coat, a close, military outer garment, with short sleeves, and laced tightly over the chest, made of buffalo skin, or other thick and elastic material, worn by soldiers in the 17th century as a defensive covering.
Etymology [OE. buff, buffe, buff, buffalo, F. buffle buffalo. See Buffalo.]
Etymology [OF. bufer to cuff, buffet. See Buffet a blow.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “buff”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details