buffets

Verb

buffet (third-person singular simple present buffets, present participle buffeting or (rare) buffetting, simple past and past participle buffeted or (rare) buffetted)

1. (transitive) To strike with a buffet; to cuff; to slap.
   • They spit in his face and buffeted him.1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:67
2. (figuratively, transitive) To aggressively challenge, denounce, or criticise.
   • Is Burns obscure because he was gay and therefore ignorable until the Gay Rights Movement began? Or does he largely deserve his neglect? An answer requires that one examine not only Burns' books, but also the critical environment in which he was much buffeted — which, we are told, drove him to an...1977 August 20, Robert Etherington, “John Horne Burns and His Enemies”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 10

   Synonyms:

   batter

3. To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against.
   • to buffet the billows

   Synonyms:

   batter

4. To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.
5. (intransitive) To struggle, contend; also in figurative or extended use: to move as if driven by force.
   • Again the chirpy tone did nothing to pacify the woman holding on to her ankles. Soon Zoe was buffeting back and forward through the hole.2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], “Tug of War”, in Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, pages 200–201

See all 10 meanings of buffet