puffback
puffback noun: any bird of the genus Dryoscopus.
Noun
puffback (plural puffbacks)
- Any bird of the genus Dryoscopus.
- The (unintended) emission of soot or smoke from a furnace or boiler into a structure, typically caused by a burner failing to ignite properly, allowing a buildup of fumes which explode and expel soot or smoke into the structure.
- Puffback can also be caused by a faulty pressure regulator that allows oil to drip into the combustion chamber after the burner shuts down. The leaking oil gets absorbed by the lining of the combustion chamber, and it can also pool[…]1999, Frank C. Montagna, Responding to Routine Emergencies, PennWell Books, →ISBN, page 50
- Broken or malfunctioning electrodes can result in smoke leaking out into the rooms of the structure. This problem, called a puffback, is not an uncommon one in oil-fired appliances (see sidebar).2004 July 2, James E. Brumbaugh, Audel HVAC Fundamentals, Volume 2: Heating System Components, Gas and Oil Burners, and Automatic Controls, John Wiley & Sons, →ISBN, page 36
Forms of puffback
| plural | puffbacks |
|---|
Origin of puffback
From puff + back.
Words formed from puffback
Phrases with puffback
Questions about puffback
- What does puffback mean?
- Puffback means any bird of the genus Dryoscopus.
- What part of speech is puffback?
- Puffback is a noun.
- What is the plural of puffback?
- The plural of puffback is puffbacks.
Words near puffback in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: puffback (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:
Cite this entry: “puffback.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puffback. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.