Word.ws English Dictionary

faffing

faffing is the present participle and gerund of faff.

Meaning of faff

Verb

faff (third-person singular simple present faffs, present participle faffing, simple past and past participle faffed)

  1. (colloquial, intransitive) To blow in puffs, blow gently.
  2. (archaic, transitive) 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
  3. (Australia, Ireland, New Zealand, UK, intransitive) To waste time on an unproductive activity.
    • Stop Faffing And Just Do It2009, Steven Aitchison, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind, page 131

See all 6 meanings of faff

Phrases with faffing

Questions about faffing

What is faffing the present participle and gerund of?
Faffing is the present participle and gerund of faff.

Words near faffing in the dictionary

  1. faffer
  2. faffers
  3. faffery
  4. faffier
  5. faffiest
  6. faffing
  7. faffing about
  8. faffing around
  9. faffle
  10. faffled
  11. faffles

Source and license

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

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