Meanings
comparative more uffish · superlative most uffish
- nonce wordgrumpy, ill-tempered
The Bellman looked uffish, and wrinkled his brow.
1874–1876 (date written), Lewis Carroll [pseudonym; Charles Lutwidge Dodgson], “Fit the Fit the Fourth. The Hunting.”, in The Hunting of the Snark […], London: Macmillan and Co., published March 1876, →OCLC2 more examples
And, as in uffish thought he stood, / The Jabberwock, with eyes of flame, / Came whiffling through the tulgey wood, / And burbled as it came!
1872, Lewis Carroll, Jabberwocky (poem in Through the Looking-Glass)Its great Cham was Wells, whose highly readable prose flowed easily between the line-drawings of behemoths in the coal swamps and Neanderthal man looking uffish.
1956, Lawrence Johnstone Burpee, Canadian geographical journal, volumes 52-53
Origin
Coined by British author and scholar Lewis Carroll. From its sound; Carroll explained the word as "a state of mind when the voice is gruffish, the manner roughish, and the temper huffish."
Full word history & related roots →Cite this entry
uffish. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uffish
“uffish.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uffish. Accessed November 2, 2026.
WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “uffish,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/uffish.
Source: uffish on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.