pfaff

1. Indicating disapproval, scoffery, irritation, impatience or disbelief.

   “Let him! Dost think these simple Englishmen can ever compete with us on the high seas? Pfaff! They are like the silly sheep they raise and are only fit for shearing. […]”

   1937, Elinor Whitney Field, “The Coffer Keys” (chapter 5), in Tod of the Fens, The Macmillan Company, page 63

   Synonyms: pshaw

present singular third person pfaffs · participle present pfaffing · participle past pfaffed · past pfaffed

1. UKalternativeslangAlternative spelling of faff.

   By my own admission I pfaffed around a bit here but I'm going to claim that I was merely enjoying the moment!

   2004, Chris Ward, The controversial Sämisch King's Indian, page 81

   3 more examples

   No, on a foreign journey, the real damage is done pfaffing about in airport lounges, counting down the torture to departure, sitting on the runway, enduring protracted periods of sub-pedestrian taxiing [...].

   2001, John McCabe, Snakeskin, Doubleday, →ISBN, page 61

   Mr Hicks wrote on his website: "At dusk the rudder cable broke At dusk the rudder cable broke. "Six hours pfaffing about in the dark and heaving sea saw a fairly unsatisfactory makeshift steering system into place"

   2005 September 25, “Atlantic slow row coming to end”, in BBC News

   Chetan Mahajan is a writing coach, blogger and author. To convey coolness he calls himself the Chief Pfaffing Officer of the Himalayan Writing Retreat, which he co-founded.

   2020 May 18, Chetan Mahajan, “The other pandemic: Title inflation”, in Livemint

plural Pfaffs

1. A surname from German.