faff
/fæf/
faff noun: an overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.
Noun
faff (plural faffs)
- An overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.
- Adjusting this television is a bit of a faff.
- God it must be a faff having to get nigh-on naked every time your bladder runneth over, and imagine how much worse it must be if you only have a 20-second break to run off stage to the loo.2007 November 27, Hadley Freeman, “Miaow!”, in The Guardian
- Synonyms:
- annoyance, bother, grievance, hassle, inconvenience, irritation, nuisance, palaver, peeve, plague
- A state of confused or frantic activity.
- She's in a total faff about tonight's dinner party.
- I knew May would be in a faff, and I was right. […] Half an hour later (still with plenty of time because I’d known there would be this fuss) we left with May clad in black.2010, Margaret Forster, Isa & May, page 38
- Synonyms:
- flap
- A puff of smoke; a gust of wind.
- “Shut t’ door, wilt-tu,” said Widow Goggin sharply; “thou’rt letting in faffs o’ wind. And tak’ thi shawl off.”1900, Emma Frances Brooke, The Engrafted Rose: A Novel, page 27
Verb
faff (third-person singular simple present faffs, present participle faffing, simple past and past participle faffed)
- To blow in puffs, blow gently.
- To move (something) with a puff of air, to blow away.
- Time wi’ his scythe hed mawn t’crop on his heead, An’ then fafft it away wi’ his wing.1949, W.J. Halliday, Arthur Stanley Umpleby, The White Rose Garland, page 104
- To waste time on an unproductive activity.
- Stop Faffing And Just Do It2009, Steven Aitchison, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind, page 131
- Frontier knows you're going to be spending a lot of time building coasters and faffing with scenery, so it doesn't want you fighting fires constantly.2025 February, Rick Lane, “Review: Planet Coaster 2”, in PC Gamer (US), number 392, page 69; published online 1 November 2024
- Synonyms:
- arse around, dick around
Examples of faff in a sentence
- Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff.2011, Patrick Kingsley, “Life with the Queen Mum revealed”, in The Guardian:
- The fuss and faff meant Christmas had long since been drained of any joy and excitement.2017, Andi Watson, Glister, →ISBN:
- The show is a carefully curated manifesto of “social success without faff”.2023 September 23, Tim Hayward, “Not so easy does it”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC...
Synonyms of faff
5 more synonymsFewer synonyms
Forms of faff
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | faffs |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | faffs |
| present participle | faffing |
| past participle | faffed |
| past | faffed |
Origin of faff
Originally imitative of wind or puffs of air (see verb senses "to blow in puffs", "to move with a puff of air"). The noun is formed from the verb by conversion.
Words formed from faff
- faff about
- faffage
- faff around
- faffer
- faffery
- faff on
- faff with
Words that rhyme with faff
14 more rhymesFewer rhymes
Questions about faff
- What does faff mean?
- Faff means an overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.
- How do you use faff in a sentence?
- Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff.
- What part of speech is faff?
- Faff can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce faff?
- Faff is pronounced /fæf/.
- What is the plural of faff?
- The plural of faff is faffs.
Words near faff in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: faff (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-faff.ogg.
Cite this entry: “faff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/faff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.