eff

plural effs

1. alternativeAlternative spelling of ef; the name of the Latin script letter F/f.

   ‘Eff. You. En,’ said Mr Banstead. ‘Fun![…]’

   1969, Michael Feld, The Sabbatical Year, London: Alan Ross Ltd, page 301

   3 more examples

   Why against printers all this noise? This summoning of blackguard boys? Why so sagacious in your guesses? Your effs, and tees, and arrs, and eſſes? Take my advice; to make you safe, I know a shorter way be half.

   a. 1746 (date written), Jonathan Swift, “On the Irish Club”, in Thomas Sheridan, John Nichols, editors, The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published 1801, →OCLC, page 78

   A or an? When an indefinite article precedes an acronym or initialism, the choice between a and an follows from the pronunciation: / a FAQ file (“fack”; but “an FAQ file” with the alternate pronunciation “eff-ay-cue”) / an FTC commissioner (“eff-tee-cee”)

   2019, Amy Einsohn, Marilyn Schwartz, “[Abbreviations and Symbols] Abbreviations”, in The Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, 4th edition, University of California Press, →ISBN, part 2 (Editorial Style), page 242

   ‘S-S-C…sitting on a tree…eff-you-cee-kay-i-en-ji.’

   2019, Anand Ranganathan, Chitra Subramaniam, The Rat Eater, Bloomsbury India, →ISBN

present singular third person effs · participle present effing · participle past effed · past effed

1. euphemisticslangSynonym of fuck.

   Eff off!

   4 more examples

   And he kept saying, "Effing this, effing that."

   Sheikh Ali beamed benignly at Delgado. "Shall we resume discussion of your workshops manager?" Blackmail, thought Delgado. The squeeze, no less. What could the fat hypocrite know? Nothing, he decided. And even if he did, Delgado would need his head looked at if he was going to discuss the matter with Sheikh Ali. Sheikh Ali, he made up his mind, could go and eff himself.

   1968, Martin Blackburn, Market of the Mountain Men, London: Robert Hale, page 128

   “Holy moly. What the heck is happening here? Hey, hey! Let me out of here. Hey, you. Give me back control of my body.” “[scoffs] Nah, dude, this is my body. You already effed it up.” “No, it's not.” “Whatever, man. I don't take orders from a reflection. [chuckles]” “I'm not a reflection. Help! I think an anaphasic alien took over my body.”

   2022 September 22, Mike McMahan, “Reflections” (4:41 from the start), in Star Trek: Lower Decks, season 3, episode 5, spoken by Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero)

   “So what do you think?” “Am I supposed to eff him or, you know, what's the plan here?” “I mean, you can if you want, but, no, that's not why I brought him here.” “Well, why did you bring him here? PS: I probably will eff him. But more out of boredom than anything else. [sighs] Such is the plight of The Guide.”

   2024 October 21, Paul Simms, “The Return of Jerry” (21:03 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows, season 6, episode 1, spoken by The Guide (Kristen Schaal)

   Synonyms: feck, frak, frig, fork, funk, fuck

present singular third person effs · participle present effing · participle past effed · past effed

1. To put into words; to express.

   It is another way of effing the ineffable, one with potentially serious practical effects.

   2018, Wesley J. Wildman, Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language, page 83

   3 more examples

   […] and perhaps also because what we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter or eff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.

   1953, Samuel Beckett, Watt, [Paris]: Olympia Press, →OCLC

   They, no more than we, found it hard to eff the ineffable, but they, you see, needed to console themselves more.

   2001, Paul West, Master Class: Scenes from a Fiction Workshop, page 57

   Douglas Adams (1952–2001), author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, puts it memorably: “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may not eff it after all.”

   2020, Tim Vivian, Other Voices, Other Rooms: Poems, page 100

1. InternetabbreviationinitialismbusinessInitialism of Electronic Frontier Foundation.

   The EFF asked Legere about the issue on Twitter. After partially answering the question in a video, Legere said, "Who the f— are you anyway EFF? Why are you stirring up so much trouble, and who pays you?"

   2016 January 11, Heather Kelly, “T-Mobile CEO apologizes for EFF F-bomb”, in CNN Business, archived from the original on 14 May 2025

2. South AfricaabbreviationinitialismgovernmentInitialism of Economic Freedom Fighters.

   Once all the votes are counted, if the ANC remains below 50% it will be forced to enter a coalition with one or more parties. Depending on how low its support dips, it may need to form a deal with one of the larger opposition parties such as the DA or EFF to remain in power.

   2024 May 30, Sarah Dean and David McKenzie, “First results in South Africa’s election suggest it is heading for biggest political shift since apartheid”, in CNN, archived from the original on 14 May 2025

plural Effs

1. Alternative letter-case form of eff.