puff

[puhf]
noun
1.
a short, quick blast, as of wind or breath.
2.
an abrupt emission of air, smoke, vapor, etc.
3.
an act of inhaling and exhaling, as on a cigarette or pipe; whiff.
4.
the sound of an abrupt emission of air, vapor, etc.
5.
a small quantity of vapor, smoke, etc., emitted at one blast.
6.
an inflated or distended part of a thing; swelling; protuberance.
7.
a form of light pastry with a filling of cream, jam, or the like.
8.
a portion of material gathered and held down at the edges but left full in the middle, as on a sleeve.
9.
a cylindrical roll of hair.
10.
a quilted bed covering, usually filled with down.
11.
a commendation, especially an exaggerated one, of a book, an actor's performance, etc.
12.
powder puff.
13.
a ball or pad of soft material.
14.
puffball.
15.
Chiefly British Slang. a male homosexual.
verb (used without object)
16.
to blow with short, quick blasts, as the wind.
17.
to be emitted in a puff.
18.
to emit a puff or puffs; breathe quick and hard, as after violent exertion.
19.
to go with puffing or panting.
20.
to emit puffs or whiffs of vapor or smoke.
21.
to move with such puffs: The locomotive puffed into the station.
22.
to take puffs at a cigar, cigarette, etc.
23.
to become inflated, distended, or swollen (usually followed by up ).
24.
(especially of an auctioneer's accomplice) to bid on an item at an auction solely to increase the price that the final bidder must pay.
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verb (used with object)
25.
to send forth (air, vapor, etc.) in short, quick blasts.
26.
to drive or impel by puffing, or with a short, quick blast.
27.
to extinguish by means of a puff (usually followed by out ): to puff a match out.
28.
to smoke (a cigar, cigarette, etc.).
29.
to inflate, distend, or swell, especially with air.
30.
to make fluffy; fluff (often followed by up ): to puff up a pillow.
31.
to inflate with pride, vanity, etc. (often followed by up ): Their applause puffed him up.
32.
to praise unduly or with exaggeration.
33.
to apply powder to (the cheeks, neck, etc.) with a powder puff.
34.
to apply (powder) with a powder puff.
35.
to arrange in puffs, as the hair.
Origin:
1175–1225; (v.) Middle English puffen (compare Middle Dutch puffen, Low German pof, puf); (noun) Middle English puf, puffe; of imitative orig.

Related forms
puff·ing·ly, adverb
un·puffed, adjective
un·puff·ing, adjective

Synonyms
11. overpraise, exaggeration, puffery, flattery.
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2013.
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Collins
World English Dictionary
puff (pʌf) [Click for IPA pronunciation guide]
 
—n
1.  a short quick draught, gust, or emission, as of wind, smoke, air, etc, esp a forceful one
2.  the amount of wind, smoke, etc, released in a puff
3.  the sound made by or associated with a puff
4.  an instance of inhaling and expelling the breath as in smoking
5.  a swelling
6.  a light aerated pastry usually filled with cream, jam, etc
7.  a powder puff
8.  exaggerated praise, as of a book, product, etc, esp through an advertisement
9.  a piece of clothing fabric gathered up so as to bulge in the centre while being held together at the edges
10.  a loose piece of hair wound into a cylindrical roll, usually over a pad, and pinned in place in a coiffure
11.  a less common word for quilt
12.  one's breath (esp in the phrase out of puff)
13.  derogatory, slang a male homosexual
14.  a dialect word for puffball
 
—vb (often foll by up, out, etc)
15.  to blow or breathe or cause to blow or breathe in short quick draughts or blasts
16.  (tr; often foll by out; usually passive) to cause to be out of breath
17.  to take puffs or draws at (a cigarette, cigar, or pipe)
18.  to move with or by the emission of puffs: the steam train puffed up the incline
19.  to swell, as with air, pride, etc
20.  (tr) to praise with exaggerated empty words, often in advertising
21.  (tr) to apply (cosmetic powder) from a powder puff to (the face)
22.  to increase the price of (a lot in an auction) artificially by having an accomplice make false bids
 
[Old English pyffan; related to Dutch German puffen, Swiss pfuffen, Norwegian puffa, all of imitative origin]

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 10th Edition
2009 © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins
Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009
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Etymonline
Word Origin & History

puff
O.E. pyffian "an act of puffing," of imitative origin. Used of small swellings and round protuberances since 1538. Meaning "type of light pastry" is recorded from 1419; that of "small pad for applying powder to skin or hair" is from 1658. Figurative sense of "flattery, inflated praise" is first recorded
1732. Puffy "swollen" is from 1664. Puff-ball, type of fungus, is from 1649; puffer, type of fish, is from 1814.
Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper
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Slang Dictionary

puff definition


  1. in.
    to get drunk. : Those guys go out and puff every Friday night.
Dictionary of American Slang and Colloquial Expressions by Richard A. Spears.Fourth Edition.
Copyright 2007. Published by McGraw Hill.
Cite This Source
FOLDOC
Computing Dictionary

puff definition

algorithm
To decompress data that has been crunched by Huffman coding. At least one widely distributed Huffman decoder program was actually *named* "PUFF", but these days it is usually packaged with the encoder.
Opposite: huff.
[Jargon File]
(1996-10-16)

The Free On-line Dictionary of Computing, © Denis Howe 2010 http://foldoc.org
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Example sentences
But the show, quite dramatically, opens with a big puff of smoke.
He is an elfin figure with a soft puff of white hair, who seems to gravitate
  toward the lion's jaws.
Continuous hot-air puffing is a common technique used by industry to puff
  cereal grains.
Roll puff paste to one-eighth inch thickness, and cut in rounds.
Slang
cream puff
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