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Puff   /pəf/   Listen
noun
Puff  n.  
1.
A sudden and single emission of breath from the mouth; hence, any sudden or short blast of wind; a slight gust; a whiff. " To every puff of wind a slave."
2.
Anything light and filled with air. Specifically:
(a)
A puffball.
(b)
kind of light pastry.
(c)
A utensil of the toilet for dusting the skin or hair with powder.
3.
An exaggerated or empty expression of praise, especially one in a public journal.
Puff adder. (Zool.)
(a)
Any South African viper belonging to Clotho and allied genera. They are exceedingly venomous, and have the power of greatly distending their bodies when irritated. The common puff adder (Vipera arietans, or Clotho arietans) is the largest species, becoming over four feet long. The plumed puff adder (Clotho cornuta) has a plumelike appendage over each eye.
(b)
A North American harmless snake (Heterodon platyrrhinos) which has the power of puffing up its body. Called also hog-nose snake, flathead, spreading adder, and blowing adder.
Puff bird (Zool.), any bird of the genus Bucco, or family Bucconidae. They are small birds, usually with dull-colored and loose plumage, and have twelve tail feathers. See Barbet (b).


verb
Puff  v. t.  
1.
To drive with a puff, or with puffs. "The clearing north will puff the clouds away."
2.
To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously. "I puff the prostitute away."
3.
To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate; to ruffle with puffs; often with up; as, a bladder puffed with air. "The sea puffed up with winds."
4.
To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, or the like; often with up. "Puffed up with military success."
5.
To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly. " Puffed with wonderful skill."


Puff  v. i.  (past & past part. puffed; pres. part. puffing)  
1.
To blow in puffs, or with short and sudden whiffs.
2.
To blow, as an expression of scorn; with at. "It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation."
3.
To breathe quick and hard, or with puffs, as after violent exertion. "The ass comes back again, puffing and blowing, from the chase."
4.
To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.
5.
To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance. "Then came brave Glory puffing by."


adjective
Puff  adj.  Puffed up; vain. (R.)





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Puff" Quotes from Famous Books



... not with the brilliant glow of winter, but a sort of scalded red. They juke their heads forward to escape their collars' moist embrace; they reach their hands back of them to pull their clinging winter underwear away. They fan themselves with joggerfies, and puff out: "Phew!" and look pleadingly at the shut windows. One boy, bolder than his fellows, moans with a suffering lament: "Miss Daniels, cain't we have the windows open? It's awful hot!" Frightful dangers lurk in draughts. Fresh air ...
— Back Home • Eugene Wood
... kindled the fire and heated the iron plate. In the mean time, I broke up the grated cassava, and mixed it with a little milk; and giving each of them a cocoa-nut basin filled with the paste, I showed them how to pour it with a spoon upon the plate, and spread it about; when the paste began to puff up, I judged it was baked on one side, and turned it, like a pancake, with a fork; and after a little time, we had a quantity of nice yellow biscuits, which, with a jug of milk, made us a delicious collation; ...
— The Swiss Family Robinson; or Adventures in a Desert Island • Johann David Wyss
... their bellies like dusty puff-adders of the Sahara itself, the three companions in arms—American, French, Arab—slid out of the shallow trench, and in the gloom were lost to sight ...
— The Flying Legion • George Allan England
... sparrows and ordered them to lay their eggs in old thrushes' nests and sent their young to the ladies and swore they were all thrushes! It was known afterward on the island as the Sparrows' Year, and so, when you meet, as you doubtless sometimes do, grown-up people who puff and blow as if they thought themselves bigger than they are, very likely they belong to ...
— The Little White Bird - or Adventures In Kensington Gardens • J. M. Barrie
... that he could get a chance himself to kill any. It seemed to him that he had to wait an hour, and just when he was going to hollo, and tell his brother where the ducks were, the old smooth-bore sent out a red flash and a white puff before he heard the report; Tip tore loose from his grasp; and he heard the splashing rise of the ducks, and the hurtling rush of their wings; and he ran forward, yelling, "How many did you hit? Where are they? Where are you? Are ...
— Boy Life - Stories and Readings Selected From The Works of William Dean Howells • William Dean Howells


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