Word.ws English Dictionary

duffing

duffing is the present participle and gerund of duff.

Meaning of duff

Verb

duff (third-person singular simple present duffs, present participle duffing, simple past and past participle duffed)

  1. (obsolete, slang) To disguise something to make it look new.
  2. (obsolete, slang) To sell spurious goods, often under pretence of their being stolen or smuggled.
    • A person once taken-in by smuggled handkerchiefs, or anything, won’t deal with a hawker again, even though there’s no deception. But ‘duffing,’ and all that is going down fast, and I wish it was gone altogether.1851, Henry Mayhew, London Labour and the London Poor, published 1861
  3. (Australia) To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
  4. (US) To hit the ground behind the ball.

See all 23 meanings of duff

Adjective

duffing (comparative more duffing, superlative most duffing)

  1. (UK, obsolete, slang) Like a duffer; incompetent or worthless.
    • 'I don't comprehend your meaning, Mr. St. Leger,' was the respectful reply.
      'What a duffing old file you must be, then! Caractacus, of course.'1875, Mary Elizabeth Braddon, editor, Belgravia, a London magazine, page 41

Proper noun capitalized: Duffing

Duffing

  1. A surname.

Synonyms of duffing

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of duffing

comparativemore duffing
superlativemost duffing

Words formed from duffing

Phrases with duffing

Questions about duffing

What does duffing mean?
Duffing means like a duffer; incompetent or worthless.
What is duffing the present participle and gerund of?
Duffing is the present participle and gerund of duff.
What part of speech is duffing?
Duffing can be an adjective or a proper noun.

Words near duffing in the dictionary

  1. Duffields
  2. duffies
  3. duffil
  4. duffill
  5. duffin
  6. duffing
  7. Duffing equation
  8. Duffing equations
  9. duffing up
  10. duffins
  11. duffle

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: duffing (page history and authors); Duffing (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.

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