a soft, thick, light-yellow leather with a napped surface, originally made from buffalo skin but later also from other skins, used for making belts, pouches, etc.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
[buhf] 
