Word.ws English Dictionary

baff

/bæf/

baff verb: to bark; yelp.

Verb (1)

baff (third-person singular simple present baffs, present participle baffing, simple past and past participle baffed)

  1. (archaic, intransitive) To bark; yelp.

Verb (2)

baff (third-person singular simple present baffs, present participle baffing, simple past and past participle baffed)

  1. To hit or strike, especially with something flat or soft.
  2. To strike the ground with the bottom of the club when taking a stroke.

Noun (1)

baff (uncountable)

  1. (Geordie, Scotland) blank

Noun (2) capitalized: BAFF

BAFF

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of B-cell activating factor.

Proper noun (1) capitalized: BAFF

BAFF

  1. (abbreviation, initialism) Initialism of British Armed Forces Federation.
  2. (abbreviation, historical, initialism) Initialism of British Air Forces in France.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Baff

Baff

  1. A surname

Forms of baff

third-person singular presentbaffs
present participlebaffing
past participlebaffed
pastbaffed

Origin of baff

From Middle English baffen (“to bark”). Cognate with Dutch baffen (“to bark”), Low German baffen (“to bark”), German baffen, bäfzen (“to bark”), Danish bjæffe (“to yelp”), Swedish bjäbba (“to yelp, bark”). Compare buff, yaff.

Probably from Scots baff, beff, bauf, probably from West Flemish baf, baffe (“a blow, slap in the face”). Compare also Old French baffe (“slap in the face”) (Modern French baffe), of imitative origin.

Words formed from baff

Words that rhyme with baff

14 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about baff

What does baff mean?
Baff means to bark; yelp.
What part of speech is baff?
Baff can be a verb, a noun or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce baff?
Baff is pronounced /bæf/.
What is the past tense of baff?
The past tense of baff is baffed.

Words near baff in the dictionary

  1. bafaro
  2. BAFC
  3. BAFCs
  4. bafertisite
  5. bafetinib
  6. baff
  7. baffed
  8. baffed out
  9. baffed-out
  10. baffie
  11. baffies

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: baff (page history and authors); BAFF (page history and authors); Baff (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-baff.wav.

Cite this entry: “baff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/baff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.