duffer
UK/ˈdʌfə//ˈdʌfɚ/
duffer is the comparative form of duff.
Noun
duffer (plural duffers)
- An incompetent, indolent, or clumsy person.
- Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas showing himself a hopeless duffer at the business.1899 March, Joseph Conrad, “The Heart of Darkness”, in Blackwood’s Edinburgh Magazine, volume CLXV, number MI, New York, N.Y.: The Leonard Scott Publishing Company, […], →OCLC, part II
- Synonyms:
- unskilled person
- A player having little skill, especially a golfer who duffs.
- 4. P-N5 BxP Clearly, Duras intends to have his fun with this duffer.1963 March, Walter Korn, “The Finishing Touch”, in Chess Review
- A pedlar or hawker, especially one selling cheap or substandard goods.
- Among them are several distinct and peculiar street-characters, such as the pack-men, who carry their cotton or linen goods in packs on their backs, and are all itinerants. Then there are duffers, who vend pretended smuggled goods, handkerchiefs, silks, tobacco or cigars; also, the sellers of sham...1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
- Cheap or substandard goods sold by a duffer.
- Anything substandard, such as a counterfeit or a defective instance.
- Synonyms:
- duff
- A cow that does not produce milk or produces substantially less than her peers do.
- We have some good cows in this State, but, unfortunately, we have too many duffer cows that are not only being fed and milked at a loss but are eating up a portion of the profit of the good cow which is being milked alongside them.1908, Proceedings of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago, volume 8, page 116
- The truth is that cattlemen love a typical cow for her beauty and symmetry of form; but every herd-testing dairyman knows that an ugly animal may be a good producer, while many a beautiful cow is a duffer.1934, Victorian Department of Agriculture, Journal of Agriculture, volume 32, page 293
- Synonyms:
- strapper
- A cattle thief or thief of other livestock; one who alters the brands of cattle.
- Judy was an associate (‘stud’) of a Whitefella cattle duffer named Brigalow Bill (aka WJJ Ward).2004, Deborah Bird Rose, Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation, page 112
- In the mid-1860s a duffer named James Harnell, who went by the nickname Narran Jim, had taken stock he′d stolen from the district around Culgoa and Narran rivers across Queensland to the Cooper.[…]An alert Bulloo Downs stockman contacted the police, and when Police Inspector Fitzgerald and eight...2010, Evan McHugh, The Drovers
- Synonyms:
- rustler
- A racing pigeon that does not perform well.
- Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Discophora.
Meaning of duff
Adjective
Proper noun capitalized: Duffer
Duffer (plural Duffers)
- A surname.
Synonyms of duffer
Forms of duffer
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | duffers |
| Proper noun | |
| plural | Duffers |
Origin of duffer
Cognate with duff, which see (origin is uncertain).
Words formed from duffer
Words that rhyme with duffer
Questions about duffer
- What does duffer mean?
- Duffer means an incompetent, indolent, or clumsy person.
- What is duffer the comparative form of?
- Duffer is the comparative form of duff.
- What part of speech is duffer?
- Duffer can be a noun or a proper noun.
- How do you pronounce duffer?
- Duffer is pronounced /ˈdʌfɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of duffer?
- The plural of duffer is duffers.
Words near duffer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: duffer (page history and authors); Duffer (page history and authors); duff (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-us-duffer.ogg, EN-AU ck1 duffer.ogg.
Cite this entry: “duffer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/duffer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.