Word.ws English Dictionary

buff

UK/bʌf/

More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations

Australia/bɐf/

buff noun: undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals. Also the alternative form of buffe.

Noun (1)

buff (countable and uncountable, plural buffs)

  1. Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
    • […]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  2. A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
  3. A brownish yellow colour.
    • […] a Visage rough,
      Deform’d, Unfeatur’d, and a Skin of Buff.1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 10, lines 307-308, p. 203
    • His face changed from tan to buff.1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 24, in Red Harvest
  4. A military coat made of buff leather.
    • A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount...
  5. (informal) A person who is very interested in a particular subject.
    • He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.
  6. A change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.
    Antonyms:
    nerf
  7. (roleplaying games) An effect that makes a character or item stronger.
    • I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!
    Synonyms:
    revamp
    Antonyms:
    debuff, nerf
  8. Compressive coupler force that occurs during a slack bunched condition.
  9. (colloquial) The bare skin.
    • to strip to the buff
    • To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked.1880, Thomas Wright, “buff”, in Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English, containing words from the English writers previous to the nineteenth century which are no longer in use, or are not used...
  10. The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
  11. Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.
    • Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014

Adjective

buff (comparative buffer or more buff, superlative buffest or most buff)

  1. Of the color of buff leather, a brownish yellow.
  2. (colloquial) Unusually muscular.
    • The bouncer was a big, buff dude with tattoos, a shaved head, and a serious scowl.
    Synonyms:
    buffed, buffed out
  3. (Multicultural-London-English, slang) Physically attractive.
    • That's right: I'm taking driver's ed next semester. Hiring an interpreter for CHS and the deaf school outta my own hefty pockets. You're welcome. Oh, and I'm going to get really skinny and buff. All slim like a swimsuit model.2011, Josh Berk, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, Random House Digital, Inc., →ISBN, page 244

Verb (1)

buff (third-person singular simple present buffs, present participle buffing, simple past and past participle buffed)

  1. To polish and make shiny by rubbing.
    • He was already buffing the car's hubs.
  2. (roleplaying games) To make a character or an item stronger.
    • The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.
    • I noticed that the pistols were buffed in the update.
    Antonyms:
    debuff, nerf
  3. (medical slang) To modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner.
    • "Sure thing, I buffed her, and they turfed her to urology, but she bounced back to me!" [...] They attempted to transfer her to urology by modifying her chart (buffing it) to request urine tests, but the doctors in urology sent (bounced) her back.1996, Jeffrey E. Nash, James M. Calonico, The Meaning of Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology, page 139
    • The implication of such an action is an invitation to buff the chart. The medical records department could have prevented the falsification by sending a copy of the chart to the attorney at the same time that they notified the hospital physician of the attorney's request for the chart.2004, Gregory Davis, Pathology and Law, page 121
  4. (slang) To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
  5. (archaic, slang, transitive) To strip to the bare skin.

Verb (2)

buff (third-person singular simple present buffs, present participle buffing, simple past and past participle buffed)

  1. To strike.
    • Bravely run Red-hood, / There was a shock, / To have buff’d out the blood / From ought but a block.a. 1640, Ben Jonson, The Under-wood, page 277

Noun (2)

buff (plural buffs)

  1. (obsolete) A strike; a blow.
    • Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6
    • A man must consider what a blind-man’s-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect I anticipate your argument.1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series

Verb (3)

buff (third-person singular simple present buffs, present participle buffing, simple past and past participle buffed)

  1. (dialectal, obsolete) To stammer, stutter

Noun (3)

buff (countable and uncountable, plural buffs)

  1. (informal) A buffalo, or the meat of a buffalo.
    • […] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […]2006, Bradley Mayhew, Joe Bindloss, Stan Armington, Nepal
    • You will eat water buffalo meat and drink boiled water buffalo milk: buff burgers at Aunt Jane's restaurant, buff mo-mos which are the Tibetan won-tons, and buff steaks at The Globe.1992, Marilyn Stablein, The Census Taker: Stories of a Traveler in India and Nepal, page 62

Proper noun capitalized: Buff

Buff

  1. A surname.

Noun (4) capitalized: Buff

Buff (plural Buffs)

  1. (UK, plural) A member of the Buffs (Royal East Kent Regiment).

Noun (5) capitalized: Buff

Buff (plural Buffs)

  1. (abbreviation, clipping, numismatic slang) Clipping of Buffalo nickel.

Noun (6) capitalized: Buff

Buff (plural Buffs)

  1. (UK, slang) A member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.

Noun (7) capitalized: Buff

Buff (plural Buffs)

  1. (slang) A Boeing B-52 Stratofortress strategic bomber aircraft.

Noun (8) capitalized: BUFF

BUFF (plural BUFFs)

  1. (US, abbreviation, acronym, slang, Air Force) Acronym of big ugly fat fellow (or fucker), US Air Force nickname for the B-52 bomber.
    • The B-52 Stratofortress is not called the Buff because it is painted a tan or dun-brown color.1994, Frederick Forsyth, The Fist of God: [a novel], page 377
    • I should note here in polite society it is considered proper to call the B-52 a BUFF for Big Ugly Fat Fella or Fellows2002, S. Lock, Ribald Tales & Stories from U.T.: Confessions of a Staff Weenie, page 3

Also used as

buff is also the alternative form of buffe.

buff meaning in Hindi, Marathi, Urdu and Bengali

buff in Hindi

बफ, बफ़

buff in Marathi

बफ, बुफ

buff in Urdu

بف, باف

buff in Bengali

বফ, বাফ
More languagesFewer languages
buff in Telugu
బఫ్, బుఫ్, బఫ్కి
buff in Malayalam
ബഫ്, ബഫ് ചെയ്യാൻ
buff in Kannada
ಬಫ್, ಬುಫ್
buff in Punjabi
ਬੱਫ, ਬਫ਼, ਬੁੱਫ
buff in Gujarati
બફ
buff in Odia
ବଫ୍, ବାଫ୍
buff in Nepali
बफ, बफ गर्न
buff in Indonesian
bungalan

Examples of buff in a sentence

  • I don't think the character will be part of the meta even with the recent buffs.
  • I don't think the character will be meta even with the recent buffs.
  • I'll need to buff up on my Italian before my trip to Genoa.

All 40 example sentences with buff

Synonyms of buff

16 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Antonyms

All synonyms and antonyms of buff

Forms of buff

Noun
pluralbuffs
pluralBuffs
pluralBUFFs
alternative formBuff
Adjective
comparativebuffer
comparativemore buff
superlativebuffest
superlativemost buff
Verb
third-person singular presentbuffs
present participlebuffing
past participlebuffed
pastbuffed

Plural of buff: buffs

Origin of buff

From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).

From Old French bufer (“to cuff, buffet”). See buffet (“a blow”).

From Middle English buffen (“to stutter, stammer”), from Old English byffan (“to mumble, mutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bubjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to fear, to be afraid”). More at bive (“tremble, shake”) and bever.

Words formed from buff

Phrases with buff

Words that rhyme with buff

27 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about buff

What does buff mean?
Buff means undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
What is buff in Hindi?
Buff in Hindi is बफ, बफ़. See Buff meaning in Hindi.
What part of speech is buff?
Buff can be a noun, an adjective, a verb or a proper noun.
How do you pronounce buff?
Buff is pronounced /bʌf/ (UK).
What is the plural of buff?
The plural of buff is buffs.

Words near buff in the dictionary

  1. bufeo
  2. bufeos
  3. bufetolol
  4. bufexamac
  5. bufezolac
  6. buff
  7. buff coat
  8. buff coats
  9. buff down
  10. buff jerkin
  11. buff jerkins

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: buff (page history and authors); Buff (page history and authors); BUFF (page history and authors); buff (Hindi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Marathi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Urdu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Bengali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Telugu, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Malayalam, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Kannada, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Punjabi, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Gujarati, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Odia, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license); buff (Nepali, IndicTrans2 machine translation) (model and license). 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: En-au-buff.ogg.

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