a soft, thick, light-yellow leather with a napped surface, originally made from buffalo skin but later also from other skins, used for making belts, pouches, etc.
2.
a brownish-yellow color; tan.
3.
a buff stick or buff wheel.
4.
a devotee or well-informed student of some activity or subject: Civil War buffs avidly read the new biography of Grant.
5.
Informal. the bare skin: in the buff.
6.
Also called buffcoat.a thick, short coat of buffalo leather, worn esp. by English soldiers and American colonists in the 17th century.
7.
Informal. a buffalo.
–adjective
8.
having the color of buff.
9.
made of buff leather.
10.
Slang. physically attractive; muscular.
–verb (used with object)
11.
to clean or polish (metal) or give a grainless finish of high luster to (plated surfaces) with or as if with a buff stick or buff wheel.
12.
to polish or shine, esp. with a buffer: to buff shoes.
13.
to dye or stain in a buff color.
[Origin: 1545–55; 1900–05 for def. 4; earlier buffe wild ox, back formation from buffle < MF < LL būfalus; see buffalo; (def. 4) orig. a person enthusiastic about firefighting and firefighters, allegedly after the buff uniforms once worn by volunteer firefighters in New York City]
1580, buffe leather, from M.Fr. buffle "buffalo." Color term comes from hue of buffalo hides (later ox hides); association of "hide" and "skin" led c.1602 to in the buff, and use of buff or suede to polish metal led to sense of verb "to polish with a buff" (1885). Buff-colored uniforms of N.Y.C. volunteer firefighters since 1820s led to meaning "enthusiast" (1903).
"The Buffs are men and boys whose love of fires, fire-fighting and firemen is a predominant characteristic." [N.Y. "Sun," Feb. 4, 1903]
Blind"man's buff"\ [See Buff a buffet.] A play in which one person is blindfolded, and tries to catch some one of the company and tell who it is. Surely he fancies I play at blindman's buff with him, for he thinks I never have my eyes open. --Stillingfleet.
Buff\ (b[u^]f), n. [OE. buff, buffe, buff, buffalo, F. buffle buffalo. See Buffalo.]1. 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. 2. The color of buff; a light yellow, shading toward pink, gray, or brown. A visage rough, Deformed, unfeatured, and a skin of buff. --Dryden. 3. A military coat, made of buff leather. --Shak. 4. (Med.) The grayish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat. See Buffy coat, under Buffy, a. 5. (Mech.) A wheel covered with buff leather, and used in polishing cutlery, spoons, etc. 6. The bare skin; as, to strip to the buff. [Colloq.] To be in buff is equivalent to being naked. --Wright.
Buff\, a. 1. Made of buff leather. --Goldsmith. 2. 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. Buff jerkin, originally, a leather waistcoat; afterward, one of cloth of a buff color. [Obs.] --Nares. Buff stick (Mech.), a strip of wood covered with buff leather, used in polishing.
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