puffer
UK/ˈpʌfə/US/ˈpʌfɚ/
puffer noun: someone or something that puffs.
Noun
puffer (plural puffers)
- Someone or something that puffs.
- Any of several poisonous fish, of the family Tetraodontidae, which have the ability to inflate their bodies when in danger.
- A manually-operated inhaler.
- For years he'd made relatively light of it, referring to the little inhaler he had to use as his ‘puffer’.1983, Bill Oddie, Gone Birding, London: Methuen, page 96
- A train; a locomotive, usually one that is steam-powered.
- A Clyde puffer, a kind of small ship.
- A car left idling to warm up, emitting steam from the rear.
- An insulated puffy jacket, such as a down jacket.
- A person who gives exaggerated praise to a product, literary work, etc.
- One who is employed by the owner or seller of goods sold at auction to bid up the price; a by-bidder.
- Cicero in his Offices declares his opinion , that a vendor ought not to appoint a puffer to raise the price1834, The Law Library
- An alchemist; so named from their constant attendance to the bellows of their furnaces.
- The common, or harbour, porpoise.
- A kier used in dyeing.
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- A soffietta.
- A finite pattern that moves like a spaceship but leaves a trail of debris.
- This is the next best thing, which is a pseudo-puffer made by converting a stream of spaceships into puffer output using several c/3 spaceships.1993 March 16, David Bell, “Life program (part 2/18)”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
- Might be interesting to see if the debris from this puffer can be suppressed somehow -- assuming somebody hasn't already done that, but I don't see any sign of previous attempts.2008 June 25, Dave Greene, “B37/S23 - A Chaotic Universe.”, in comp.theory.cell-automata (Usenet)
- A security device used to detect traces of explosives or drugs on a person, by blowing puffs of air that pick up tiny particles.
puffer meaning in Tamil
puffer in Tamil
- நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும், மீன் இனங்களில் ஒன்றாகும்
Examples of puffer in a sentence
- The switch engine is unstable but a number of them working in combination can form stable puffers, spaceships and rakes.
- Perhaps the simplest puffer known is the following period 20 puffer based on the period 20 spaceship, which creates blocks.
- This might be tamed someday to form glider guns or puffers, as the B-heptomino in Life has been.
Synonyms of puffer
Forms of puffer
| plural | puffers |
|---|
Origin of puffer
From puff + -er. The cellular automata definition is a clipping of puffer train.
Words formed from puffer
Phrases with puffer
Words that rhyme with puffer
Questions about puffer
- What does puffer mean?
- Puffer means someone or something that puffs.
- What is puffer in Tamil?
- Puffer in Tamil is நமது பூமியில் காணப்படும், மீன் இனங்களில் ஒன்றாகும். See Puffer meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is puffer?
- Puffer is a noun.
- How do you pronounce puffer?
- Puffer is pronounced /ˈpʌfɚ/ (US).
- What is the plural of puffer?
- The plural of puffer is puffers.
Words near puffer in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: puffer (page history and authors); puffer (Tamil Wiktionary) (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-puffer.ogg.
Cite this entry: “puffer.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/puffer. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.