duff
Contents
English[edit]
Pronunciation[edit]
Etymology 1[edit]
Representing a northern pronunciation of dough.
Noun[edit]
duff (plural duffs)
- (dialectal) Dough.
- A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed.
- 1901, Henry Lawson, short story The Ghosts of Many Christmases, published in Children of the Bush [1]:
- The storekeeper had sent them an unbroken case of canned plum pudding, and probably by this time he was wondering what had become of that blanky case of duff.
- 1901, Henry Lawson, short story The Ghosts of Many Christmases, published in Children of the Bush [1]:
Etymology 2[edit]
Origin uncertain; probably related to Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, smoke, darken, obscure”).
Noun[edit]
duff (plural duffs)
- (Scotland, US) Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.
- 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, p. 366:
- Out under the trees, some rangers had found enough duff and dry wood to start a fire beneath a slanting ridge of slate.
- 2006, Kathy Morey, Mike White, Stacey Corless, Sierra South: Backcountry Trips in Californias Sierra Nevada (page 250)
- The underfooting is mostly duff and sand, through alternating forest and meadow.
- 1999, George RR Martin, A Clash of Kings, Bantam 2011, p. 366:
- Coal dust.
- (slang) The bits left in the bottom of the bag after the booty has been consumed, like crumbs.
- Something spurious or fake; a counterfeit, a worthless thing.
- (baseball, slang, 1800s) An error.
Adjective[edit]
duff (comparative duffer, superlative duffest)
- (Britain) Worthless; not working properly, defective.
- Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?
-
1996, Catherine Merriman, State of Desire[2], page 155:
- From its surface, he insisted, plain food became ambrosia, water nectar, and the duffest dope would blow your mind.
-
2008 May 18, R J Smith, “Death Cab Is Up for the Long Haul”, in New York Times[3]:
- The band developed its sound, shamblingly at first, on the road, in an era before thousands of blog or YouTube users could form an opinion of a band based on some MySpace demos and a duff early gig in Tacoma.
-
2009, Christopher Fowler, Paperboy[4], page 225:
- All the other parts were played by a gallery of Dickensian character actors, including Thorley Walters, Francis Matthews and, yes, Michael Ripper, who lent gravitas to the duffest dialogue lines.
Synonyms[edit]
- (defective): bum (US)
Translations[edit]
not working properly
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Etymology 3[edit]
Origin uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.
Noun[edit]
duff (plural duffs)
Translations[edit]
the buttocks
Etymology 4[edit]
Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from duffer.
Verb[edit]
duff (third-person singular simple present duffs, present participle duffing, simple past and past participle duffed)
- (slang, obsolete) To disguise something to make it look new.
- (Australia) To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
- (Britain, slang, with "up") To beat up.
- I heard Nick got duffed up behind the shopping centre at the weekend.
- (US, golf) To hit the ground behind the ball.
Related terms[edit]
Etymology 5[edit]
Noun[edit]
duff (plural duffs)
- Alternative form of daf (type of drum)
See also[edit]
Categories:
- English 1-syllable words
- English terms with IPA pronunciation
- English terms derived from the PIE root *dʰeyǵʰ-
- English lemmas
- English nouns
- English countable nouns
- English dialectal terms
- English terms derived from Proto-Indo-European
- Scottish English
- American English
- English slang
- en:Baseball
- English adjectives
- British English
- English verbs
- English terms with obsolete senses
- Australian English
- en:Golf
- en:Buttocks