huff

plural huffs

1. A heavy breath; a grunt or sigh.

   With a huff, he lifted the box onto the back of the truck.

2. figurativelyA condition of anger, annoyance, disgust, etc.

   in a huff

   2 more examples

   Such wickedness had never come into his head; but he had a certain pleasure in being the confidential friend of a very pretty woman; and when he heard that that pretty woman's husband was jealous, the pleasure was enhanced rather than otherwise. On that Sunday, as he had left the house in Curzon Street, he had told Stanbury that Trevelyan [the husband] had just gone off in a huff, which was true enough, and he had walked from thence down Clarges Street, and across Piccadilly to St. James's Street, with a jauntier step than usual, because he was aware that he himself had been the occasion of that trouble.

   1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Hard Words”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, […], →OCLC, page 74

   Tom Bower’s 2024 book, The House of Beckham, painted a rather snide portrait of the marriage, in which Beckham is constantly surrounded by lovelies, and Victoria is in a constant huff about it.

   2025 May 2, Zoe Williams, Sarah Gilbert, “David Beckham at 50: his gorgeous, outrageous life in 50 pictures”, in The Guardian, →ISSN

3. obsoleteOne swelled with a false sense of importance or value; a boaster.

   Lewd, shallow-brained huffs make atheism and contempt of religion the sole badge [...] of wit.

   1667, Robert South, The Practice of Religion enforced by Reason

4. draughtsThe act of removing an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).

present singular third person huffs · participle present huffing · participle past huffed · past huffed

1. intransitiveTo breathe heavily.

   The run left him huffing and puffing.

2. intransitiveTo say in a huffy manner.
3. intransitiveTo enlarge; to swell up.

   Bread huffs.

4. intransitiveTo bluster or swell with anger, arrogance, or pride; to storm; to take offense.First known use the 16th c.

   This senseless arrogant conceit of theirs made them huff at the doctrine of repentance.

   1691, Robert South, On the nature and measure of conscience

   1 more example

   After all, she huffed, Emily (played by Lily Collins) has been living in the French capital for about a year and had a Champagne brand as her client at the fictional luxury marketing firm, Savoir, where she worked.

   2023 January 20, Dan Bilefsky, “American Expatriates in Paris Wish Emily Cooper Would Go Home”, in The New York Times, →ISSN

5. transitiveTo treat with arrogance and insolence; to chide or rebuke rudely; to bully, to hector.

   You must not think to huff us.

   1720, Laurence Echard, The history of England: from the first entrance of Julius Caesar and the Romans to the end of the reign of King James the first containing the space of 1678 years

   2 more examples

   […] I was ſent for by the marſhall, huffed and hectored ſtrangely, thretned, &c., in fine, muſte give bonds to the good behaviour; I refuſed, […]

   1684 February 4, William Vaughan, “[Appendix.] XXXI. A Letter from William Vaughan, Esq. Containing a Journal of Transactions during His Imprisonment, &c. to Nathaniel Weare, Esq. Agent in London.”, in Jeremy Belknap, The History of New-Hampshire. […], volume I, Boston, Mass.: Re-printed for the author, published 1792, →OCLC, page lix

   Yet didn't you ſee, yet didn't you ſee, What naughty tricks they put upon me: They broke my pitcher, And ſpilt the water, And huff'd my mother, And chid her daughter, And kiſs'd my ſiſter inſtead of me.

   1795, Gammer Gurton's Garland, or, The Nursery Parnassus, Stockton: R. Christopher, page 27

6. archaictransitiveTo vex; to offend.

   Signior Riccabocca had become very intimate, as we have seen, at the Parsonage. But not so at the Hall. For though the Squire was inclined to be very friendly to all his neighbours he was, like most country gentlemen, rather easily huffed.

   1851, Varieties in English Life, page 42

7. transitiveTo inhale psychoactive inhalants.First known use the 20th c.
8. transitivedraughtsTo remove an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).

plural Huffs · alternative Houff

1. countableuncountableA surname.
2. A number of places in the United States:
   1. countableuncountableA township in Spencer County, Indiana, named after Aquilia Huff.
   2. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Edmonson County, Kentucky, named for the Huff family.
   3. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Franklin County, Missouri, probably named after settler Andrew Huff.
   4. countableuncountableAn unincorporated community in Morton County, North Dakota, near the Huff Archeological Site.
   5. countableuncountableA ghost town in Archer County, Texas, named after Charles C. Huff.