Word.ws English Dictionary

bumfluff

Syllables: bum·fluff/ˈbʌmflʌf/

bumfluff noun: the first, sparse beard growth of an adolescent.

Noun

bumfluff (uncountable)

  1. (Australia, New Zealand, UK, derogatory) The first, sparse beard growth of an adolescent.
    • He still had bumfluff on his cheeks, he was that young. About once a month he used to shave it off, and come skiting about it. I smiled at the memory of him all lathered up, grinning at me through the mirror as he went to work on the bumfluff.1983, John Carroll, Token Soldiers, Boronia, Vic.: Wildgrass Books, →ISBN, page 247
    • Dad'd kill me for doing this. It's so obvious that I mustn't touch his shaver, he's never even told me not to. […] His shaver came closer to the bumfluff on my upper lip ... closer ... It bit me! I unplugged it. Oh God. Now my bumfluff had a ridiculous patch missing.2006, David Mitchell, Black Swan Green: A Novel, London: Hodder & Stoughton, →ISBN

Examples of bumfluff in a sentence

  • There was a basic core of twelve: hard, canny females, with a few young males coming into their strength, just beginning to grow manes: bumfluff lions.2008, Simon Barnes, How to be Wild, London: Short Books, →ISBN, page 18:
  • There was me, Eddie, Wilco and a guy called Bobby Thomlinson who we never went around with much because he wore a lot of crushed velvet and had bumfluff.2013, Rikki Brown, Frankie Vaughan Ate My Hamster: Growing Up in the East End, Edinburgh: Black & White Publishing, →ISBN:

Forms of bumfluff

alternative formbum fluff
alternative formbum-fluff

Origin of bumfluff

From bum + fluff, from its resemblance to the sparse hair on the buttocks.

Questions about bumfluff

What does bumfluff mean?
Bumfluff means the first, sparse beard growth of an adolescent.
How do you use bumfluff in a sentence?
There was a basic core of twelve: hard, canny females, with a few young males coming into their strength, just beginning to grow manes: bumfluff lions.
What part of speech is bumfluff?
Bumfluff is a noun.
How do you pronounce bumfluff?
Bumfluff is pronounced /ˈbʌmflʌf/.

Words near bumfluff in the dictionary

  1. bumfiddle
  2. bumfiddles
  3. bumfight
  4. bumfights
  5. bumfit
  6. bumfluff
  7. bumfluffed
  8. bumfodder
  9. bumfoolery
  10. bumfreezer
  11. bumfreezer jacket

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: bumfluff (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: EN-AU ck1 bumfluff.ogg.

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