Word.ws English Dictionary

puffed

/pʌft/

puffed is the simple past and past participle of puff.

Adjective (1)

puffed (comparative more puffed, superlative most puffed)

  1. Inflated or swollen.
  2. Gathered up into rounded ridges.
    • The dress had puffed sleeves.
  3. Expanded by the use of steam.
  4. Consisting of a puff; exhaled or produced in puffs.
    • the puffed smoke of a cigar

Meaning of puff

Verb

puff (third-person singular simple present puffs, present participle puffing, simple past and past participle puffed)

  1. (intransitive) To emit smoke, gas, etc., in puffs.
    • Still on the down line, the engine puffed away to the South, and in a few moments had disappeared in the darkness!1950 January, David L. Smith, “A Runaway at Beattock”, in Railway Magazine, page 53
  2. (intransitive) To pant.
    • By and by comes the ass back again, Puffing and Blowing, from the Chase.1692, Roger L’Estrange, “ (please specify the fable number.) (please specify the name of the fable.)”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: […], London: […] R[ichard] Sare, […], →OCLC
  3. (archaic, transitive) To advertise.
  4. To blow as an expression of scorn.
    • It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation.1692–1717, Robert South, Twelve Sermons Preached upon Several Occasions, volume (please specify |volume=I to VI), London
  5. To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.
    • 'tis easy for a man to have a great opinion of his own knowledge , and be puff'd up by it1690, Robert Boyle, The Christian Virtuoso
  6. To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.
    • Then came brave Glory puffing by.1633, George Herbert, The Quip

See all 27 meanings of puff

Adjective (2)

puffed (comparative more puffed, superlative most puffed)

  1. (colloquial) Synonym of puffed out (“panting from exercise”).
    Synonyms:
    puffed out

Synonyms of puffed

2 more synonymsFewer synonyms

Forms of puffed

comparativemore puffed
superlativemost puffed

Origin of puffed

From puff + -ed.

Shortened from puffed out.

Words formed from puffed

Phrases with puffed

Words that rhyme with puffed

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about puffed

What does puffed mean?
Puffed means inflated or swollen.
What is puffed the simple past and past participle of?
Puffed is the simple past and past participle of puff.
What part of speech is puffed?
Puffed is an adjective.
How do you pronounce puffed?
Puffed is pronounced /pʌft/.

Words near puffed in the dictionary

  1. puffbird
  2. puffbirds
  3. puffbutt
  4. puffbutts
  5. puffcorn
  6. puffed
  7. puffed grain
  8. puffed one's chest
  9. puffed out
  10. puffed rice
  11. puffed the magic dragon

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: puffed (page history and authors); puff (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: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-puffed.wav.

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