quiff

plural quiffs

1. BritishdialectalA puff or whiff, especially of tobacco smoke.

plural quiffs

1. regionalslangA trick or ploy; a stratagem.First known use 19th c.

   It was young Mr. Abbott worked that quiff on you, sir.

   1933, John Masefield, The Bird of Dawning

plural quiffs

1. UKA hairstyle whereby the forelock is brushed and/or gelled upward, often associated with the styles of the 1950s.First known use 19th c.

   A bottle of Rio and some chicken and chips / In my fuck-me-up pumps and my Winehouse quiff

   2025, “Young”, performed by Little Simz

   1 more example

   His woolly brown hair shaped into a drooping quiff, he's been sitting poolside all morning, snatching sucks on cigarettes before the waiters can tell him no, and thinking about reworking some incidental music for the band's gig tomorrow.

   2012 September 2, Tom Lamont, The Observer

present singular third person quiffs · participle present quiffing · participle past quiffed · past quiffed

1. UKTo arrange (the hair) in such a manner.First known use 20th c.

plural quiffs

1. slangA young girl, especially as promiscuous; a prostitute.First known use 20th c.

   How would I get an African toothache when the closest I been to a quiff in over a month is sitting next to one?

   1949, John O'Hara, A Rage to Live, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, page 193

2. slangThe vulva or vagina.First known use 20th c.

   As for whores—they are sometimes daughters of fine homes peddling their quim and quiff for a thumbnail of cocaine or a tot of rot-gut whiskey.

   1970, Stephen Longstreet, Nell Kimball: Her Life as an American Madam, Macmillan, →ISBN, page 145

   1 more example

   Jane was drying herself in the bedroom, holding the bath towel behind her shoulders, her small breasts and childlike nipples flushed from the power jet, her quiff a barely visible thread.

   2000, J. G. Ballard, Super-Cannes, Fourth Estate, published 2011, page 120