floof

English

WOTD – 7 July 2017

Etymology

Possibly a deliberate mispronunciation of fluff, a back-formation from floofy, or a blend of fluff +‎ poof (compare the etymology of floofy).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /fluːf/

  • Audio (Southern England)

    (file)

• Rhymes: -uːf

Verb

floof (third-person singular simple present floofs, present participle floofing, simple past and past participle floofed)

1. (transitive, informal, often humorous) To make something fluffy, to fluff (up).
   • 2002, India Knight, Don't You Want Me?, London: Penguin Books, →ISBN:

     Then she floofs out her blonde curls artlessly and opens her mouth wide, checking her teeth for spinach.

   • 2010, Susan Fletcher, “Things that Go Thump”, in Ancient, Strange, and Lovely (The Dragon Chronicles), New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 9:

     From a dim corner, Stella [a bird] stirred: a floofing of feathers, a dry click, click of talons across the perch.

   • 2013, Claire King, chapter 19, in The Night Rainbow, London: Bloomsbury Publishing, →ISBN, page 217:

     Josette is pegging out the laundry in her garden. […] She takes a pair of trousers and floofs them so that they uncrumple. A pair of frilly knickers fly out from the leg and I laugh.

   • 2015, Lindsey J. Palmer, chapter 9, in If We Lived Here, New York, N.Y.: Kensington Books, →ISBN, page 75:

     She'd floofed her hair back up with military-grade hairspray, and then was painting over her nail art with sparkly silver when Annie found her and dragged her back to the dance floor […]

2. (intransitive, informal) To move in a floofy or fluffy manner.
   • 2012, Brian D'Amato, The Sacrifice Game (The Sacrifice Game Trilogy; 2), New York, N.Y.: Dutton, →ISBN:

     She floofed down between Max and me on the Chickly Shabby sofa.

   • 2014, Amylynn Bright, chapter 12, in Finish what We Started, Don Mills, Ont.: Carina Press, →ISBN:

     Holly flung herself on an upholstered sofa, her cute retro dress floofing around her.

   • 2015, Kathleen Cremonesi, “Pressure”, in Love in the Elephant Tent: How Running Away with the Circus Brought Me Home, Toronto, Ont.: ECW Press, →ISBN:

     I peeked over my makeup mirror to watch Stefano clamp a pasta bowl between two fingers and pet it with the yellow sponge. Suds floofed onto the counter and his shirt, the wall and the floor.

Synonyms

• fluff (verb)

Related terms

• floofy

Translations

fluff — see fluff

diminutive of fluff

• Polish: puszek (pl) m
• Russian: пушо́к (ru) m (pušók)

A chinchilla longhair, a type of Persian cat, sitting on a garden table in the UK

Interjection

floof

1. Used to indicate the (supposed) sound of moving air, as in an explosion, a puff of smoke, etc.
   • 1975, Paul West, “The Universe, and other Fictions”, in J[ames] Laughlin, Peter Glassgold, Frederick R. Martin, editors, New Directions in Prose and Poetry 31, New York, N.Y.: New Directions Publishing, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 107:

     As I [the universe] was saying, I had no idea what to expect before the beginning, so to speak. Perhaps it really went floof, woosh, bang. Or bang, woosh, floof. Or even woosh, floof, bang. You know how permutations go.

   • [2006, Kevin J. Taylor, editor, KA-BOOM!: A Dictionary of Comic Book Words, Symbols & Onomatopoeia: Comprising Many Hundreds of New Words which Modern Literature, Science & Philosophy have Neglected to Acknowledge as True, Proper & Useful Terms & which have Never before been Published in any Lexicon, Surrey, B.C.: Mora Publications, →ISBN, page 29:

     floof [MAD #181, March 1976] A word indicating a puff of smoke has appeared, as in a smoke signal: also FLOOF [MAD #181, March 1976] The imaginary sound of a single puff of smoke created with a blanket]

Noun

floof (countable and uncountable, plural floofs)

1. (Internet slang, countable, endearing) A long-haired dog, cat, or similar furry pet animal.

   Synonym: floofer

2. (Internet slang, uncountable, endearing) The fur of such an animal.
3. (Internet slang, uncountable, endearing) Hair that looks fluffy, like fur from such an animal.