boff

English

Pronunciation

• (US) IPA^(key): /bɒf/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ɒf

Etymology 1

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Alternative forms

• bauf

Verb

boff (third-person singular simple present boffs, present participle boffing, simple past and past participle boffed)

1. (slang) to have sexual intercourse (with someone)
   • 1982, Stephen King, The Raft:

     Deke and LaVerne could go out to Cascade Lake together and plow the back forty all night; he would not be delighted with the knowledge that they were boffing each other's brains out, yet neither would he be surprised.

Synonyms

• See Thesaurus:copulate or Thesaurus:copulate with

Noun

boff (plural boffs)

1. (entertainment, slang) A big laugh.
2. (entertainment, slang) A line in a film etc that elicits such a laugh.
   • 1959 July 19, Walt Kelly, Pogo, Sunday, comic strip, →ISBN, page 243:

     [Churchy, directing a comedy:] All right, Albert, here's your boff gag... You say, "What's that in the road a-head?"
     [Albert, actually seeing one:] A head! A head in the road!
     [Churchy... eventually seeing it:] Stop clownin'... This sure-fire joke is serious—you got the line all... wrong?

3. (entertainment, slang) A great success; a hit.

   Synonyms: boffo, clicko

Etymology 2

Shortened from boffin?

Noun

boff (plural boffs)

1. (slang, derogatory) A pupil who works hard; a swot.

Etymology 3

Imitative.

Verb

boff (third-person singular simple present boffs, present participle boffing, simple past and past participle boffed)

1. (slang, transitive) To hit; to strike.
   • 2014, Waverly Curtis, The Chihuahua Always Sniffs Twice, page 135:

     […] something he'd found out the hard way when he was dating Kimberly Haney back in high school and her brother, Chad, big linebacker on the Roosevelt Roughriders football team, had taken exception and boffed him upside the head.

Derived terms

• boffer

Noun

boff (plural boffs)

1. (slang) A hit or smack.
   • 1937, Damon Runyon, A Piece of Pie:

     I am paying no attention to them, because they are drinking local ale, and talking loud, and long ago I learn that when a Boston character is engaged in aleing himself up, it is a good idea to let him alone, because the best you can get out of him is maybe a boff on the beezer.