buff

plural buffs

1. countableuncountableUndyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.

   […]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]

   c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94

2. countableuncountableA tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
3. countableuncountableA brownish yellow colour.

   1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 10, lines 307-308, p. 203, […] a Visage rough, Deform’d, Unfeatur’d, and a Skin of Buff.

   1 more example

   His face changed from tan to buff.

   1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 24, in Red Harvest

4. countableuncountableA military coat made of buff leather.

   A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]

   c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94

5. countableinformaluncountableA person who is very interested in a particular subject.

   He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.

   Synonyms: enthusiast, aficionado, amateur, admirer, aficionado, connoisseur, enthusiast, devotee

6. countableuncountablevideo gamesA change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.

   Antonyms: nerf

7. countableuncountableroleplaying gamesvideo gamesAn effect that makes a character or item stronger.

   I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!

   Synonyms: revamp · Antonyms: debuff, nerf

8. countableuncountablerail transportCompressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
9. colloquialcountableuncountableThe bare skin.

   to strip to the buff

   2 more examples

   To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked.

   1880, Thomas Wright, “buff”, in Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English, containing words from the English writers previous to the nineteenth century which are no longer in use, or are not used in the same sense. And words which are now used only in the provincial dialects, volume 1, London: George Bell and Sons, page 265

   Not to mention, nudity can be just plain convenient. “Laundry is minimal,” Schulte notes. It also doesn’t hurt that being in the buff spices up his workday.

   2021 October 18, Ian Lecklitzner, “The Inevitable Rise of the Work-From-Home Nudist”, in MEL Magazine

10. countableuncountableThe greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
11. countableuncountableAny substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.

    2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014, Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.

comparative buffer · comparative more buff · superlative buffest · superlative most buff

1. Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
2. colloquialUnusually muscular.

   The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.

   Synonyms: buffed, buffed out

3. Multicultural London EnglishslangPhysically attractive.

   That's right: I'm taking driver's ed next semester. Hiring an interpreter for CHS and the deaf school outta my own hefty pockets. You're welcome. Oh, and I'm going to get really skinny and buff. All slim like a swimsuit model.

   2011, Josh Berk, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, Random House Digital, Inc., →ISBN, page 244

present singular third person buffs · participle present buffing · participle past buffed · past buffed

1. To polish and make shiny by rubbing.

   He was already buffing the car's hubs.

   Synonyms: wax, shine, polish, furbish, burnish

2. roleplaying gamesvideo gamesTo make a character or an item stronger.

   I noticed that the pistols were buffed in the update.

   1 more example

   The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.

   Antonyms: debuff, nerf

3. medical slangTo modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner.

   "Sure thing, I buffed her, and they turfed her to urology, but she bounced back to me!" [...] They attempted to transfer her to urology by modifying her chart (buffing it) to request urine tests, but the doctors in urology sent (bounced) her back.

   1996, Jeffrey E. Nash, James M. Calonico, The Meaning of Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology, page 139

   1 more example

   The implication of such an action is an invitation to buff the chart. The medical records department could have prevented the falsification by sending a copy of the chart to the attorney at the same time that they notified the hospital physician of the attorney's request for the chart.

   2004, Gregory Davis, Pathology and Law, page 121

4. slangartsTo remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
5. archaicslangtransitiveTo strip to the bare skin.

present singular third person buffs · participle present buffing · participle past buffed · past buffed

1. To strike.

   Bravely run Red-hood, / There was a shock, / To have buff’d out the blood / From ought but a block.

   a. 1640, Ben Jonson, The Under-wood, page 277

plural buffs

1. obsoleteA strike; a blow.

   Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel.

   1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6

   1 more example

   A man must consider what a blind-man’s-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect I anticipate your argument.

   1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series

present singular third person buffs · participle present buffing · participle past buffed · past buffed

1. dialectalobsoleteTo stammer, stutter

plural buffs

1. countableinformaluncountableA buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo.

   […] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […]

   2006, Bradley Mayhew, Joe Bindloss, Stan Armington, Nepal

   1 more example

   You will eat water buffalo meat and drink boiled water buffalo milk: buff burgers at Aunt Jane's restaurant, buff mo-mos which are the Tibetan won-tons, and buff steaks at The Globe.

   1992, Marilyn Stablein, The Census Taker: Stories of a Traveler in India and Nepal, page 62

plural buffs

1. alternativeuncommonAlternative form of buffe (“face armor”).

   For they had helmets on their heads, fashioned like wild beast's necks, and strange beavers or buffs to the same, and wore on their helmets great high plumes of feathers, as they had been wings : […]

   1899, Selected Lives (orig. by Plutarch), page 317

plural BUFFs · alternative Buff

1. USabbreviationacronymslangAir ForceAcronym of big ugly fat fellow (or fucker), US Air Force nickname for the B-52 bomber.

   Deployed at no higher than 135 knots, the 44-foot drag chute aids in braking the BUFF.

   2004, Nick Veronico, Nicholas A. Veronico, Jim Dunn, 21st Century U.S. Air Power, page 48

   4 more examples

   The B-52 Stratofortress is not called the Buff because it is painted a tan or dun-brown color.

   1994, Frederick Forsyth, The Fist of God: [a novel], page 377

   I should note here in polite society it is considered proper to call the B-52 a BUFF for Big Ugly Fat Fella or Fellows

   2002, S. Lock, Ribald Tales & Stories from U.T.: Confessions of a Staff Weenie, page 3

   There were also, however disgusting it might seem, "BUFF" drivers coming in from B-52 bombers and C-130 cargo haulers.

   2004, Keith R Parris, The Servants of Freedom: The SOF, page 29

   The general invited his old buddy to Barksdale to fly in the B-52 and show him just what the old BUFF could do.

   2006, Jim Clonts, When Penguins Flew and Water Burned, page 447

1. A surname.

plural Buffs

1. UKpluralgovernmentA member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).

plural Buffs

1. abbreviationclippingnumismatic slangClipping of Buffalo nickel.

plural Buffs

1. UKslangA member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.

plural Buffs

1. slanggovernmentA Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft.