chuff
/t͡ʃʌf/
More pronunciations (1)Fewer pronunciations
Australia/t͡ʃɐf/
chuff adjective: surly; annoyed; displeased; disgruntled.
Adjective (1)
chuff (comparative more chuff, superlative most chuff)
- Surly; annoyed; displeased; disgruntled.
- He refused to subscribe, he who had always given so largely to the cause; he was chuff, haughty, overbearing, and seemed bent upon antagonising every prominent suggestion that was made.1872, Edward Spencer, “A Slight Toothache”, in The Southern Magazine, volume 11, page 86
- So I set out in the clear cold night, and began to think that great lords and ladies are not at all as well off as poor people thinks, with so much fine meat and drink wasted about them, and they having no wish for them; for I felt very chuff and uncomfortable, and was glad that I could not be in...1875, Patrick Kennedy ·, The Banks of the Boro: A Chronicle of the County of Wexford, page 106
- Synonyms:
- chuffy
- stupid; churlish; loutish.
- such chuff Fellows , who would not willingly allow their Children any Pleasures1728, Francis Gentleman, A Trip to the Moon, page 196
- Says Paddy , “the old one, faith, looks very chuff, though, But loves that big blackguard, I mean Lundy snuff, though;1831, The Spouter's Album
Adverb
chuff (comparative more chuff, superlative most chuff)
- In a chuff manner.
- Macbeth when he talk'd very chuff About fighting -- how soon he got floor'd With a yard of cold steel by Macduff, And mine was that Wonderful Sword.1842, John Labern, J. Labern's Original Comic Songs, (for 1842,), page 18
- I was therefore obliged, sore against my will, to apply again to Carnot, who spoke very chuff about the trouble I gave him to write a second memorandum.1893, Theobald Wolfe Tone, Richard Barry O'Brien, The Autobiography of Theobald Wolfe Tone. 1763-1798;, page 30
Noun (1)
chuff (plural chuffs)
- A coarse or stupid fellow.
- Hang ye, gorbellied knaves, are ye undone? / No, ye fat chuffs, I would your store were here!a. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, act 2, scene 2
Verb (1)
chuff (third-person singular simple present chuffs, present participle chuffing, simple past and past participle chuffed)
- To make noisy puffing sounds, as of a steam locomotive.
- The horses stumbled along, coughing and chuffing.1912, Katherine Mansfield, “The Woman At The Store”, in Selected Short Stories
- […] and the small lit up train that chuffed past in the cutting made it seem like real night.1928, D[avid] H[erbert] Lawrence, Lady Chatterley’s Lover, [Germany?]: Privately printed, →OCLC
- To break wind.
- Of a powder, propellant, or explosive charge: to become extinguished and reignited intermittently.
- Double base propellants often require ignition pressures of as much as 400 psia to avoid the problem of chuffing or hangfires.1967 Leo Allen Lukenas: The ignition transient in small solid propellant rocket motors. Princeton University
- The original work of Huffington on chuffing and oscillatory burning of cordite goes back to the beginning of the 1950s.1992, Luigi De Luca, Martin Summerfield, Nonsteady Burning and Combustion Stability of Solid Propellants, →ISBN
Noun (2)
chuff (countable and uncountable, plural chuffs)
- Superfluous small talk that is free of conflict, offers no character development, description or insight, and does not advance the story or plot.
- A noisy puffing sound.
- Then the brass bell on top of the boiler rings out and a single massive chuff! of steam issues from the bowels of the loco. Then another chuff! – a blast of steam – another chuff! and the huge drive shafts tighten against the wheels.2010, Don Gayton, Okanagan Odyssey: Journeys Through Terrain, Terroir and Culture, page 82
- A breathy noise produced by a tiger, similar in function to a cat's purr.
Adjective (2)
chuff (comparative more chuff, superlative most chuff)
Noun (3)
chuff (plural chuffs)
Verb (2)
chuff (third-person singular simple present chuffs, present participle chuffing, simple past and past participle chuffed)
- Used as a replacement for obscenities, particularly fuck.
- Oh chuff off! I'm so chuffing fed up with all of the spam posts on my timeline.
Examples of chuff in a sentence
- She was very chuff with me on New Year's Day.” “She won't be chuff with you in my presence,” said Evelyn.2020, L.T Meade, A Very Naughty Girl, page 39:
- Well, I didn't mean with my eyes, Neb; so don't be so chuff on a fellow.2020, George Manville Fenn, Sail Ho!, page 242:
- The chuff old Joe to vex has come, The Doctor—who but he?—Parnell, and all the Irish scum, Have noisy vowed to be.1878 January 24, “The Song of Big Ben”, in Truth, volume 3, page 114:
- Neville Custance is a very chuff Boy indeed as I ever saw, seem displeased & cross with every thing - would not eat a bit of Cake when brought to him.1978, James Woodforde, edited by John Beresford, The Diary of a Country Parson, 1758-1802, page 387:
Synonyms of chuff
Forms of chuff
| Adjective | |
|---|---|
| comparative | more chuff |
| superlative | most chuff |
| Adverb | |
| comparative | more chuff |
| superlative | most chuff |
| Noun | |
| plural | chuffs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | chuffs |
| present participle | chuffing |
| past participle | chuffed |
| past | chuffed |
Origin of chuff
15th century, dialectal, from Middle English chuffe (“a rustic, boor”), in noun sense “stupid fellow”. Adjective sense “surly, displeased” from 1832.
Onomatopoeic. Compare chug and puff.
1520s, in sense “swollen with fat”; circa 1860, British dialect, in sense “pleased”. Possibly related to “coarse, stupid, fat-headed” sense (see etymology 1 above). Or, perhaps a euphemistic alteration of fuck or another expletive.
Words formed from chuff
Phrases with chuff
Words that rhyme with chuff
Questions about chuff
- What does chuff mean?
- Chuff means surly; annoyed; displeased; disgruntled.
- How do you use chuff in a sentence?
- She was very chuff with me on New Year's Day.” “She won't be chuff with you in my presence,” said Evelyn.
- What part of speech is chuff?
- Chuff can be an adjective, an adverb, a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce chuff?
- Chuff is pronounced /t͡ʃʌf/ (UK).
Words near chuff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: chuff (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-uk-chough.oga, En-au-chuff.ogg.
Cite this entry: “chuff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/chuff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.