Buff Meaning
/bʌf/Definition, CEFR level C1, pronunciation, examples, and quiz.
Listen pronunciation
Definition
nounUndyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
nounA tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
Sentence Examples
Let's play a game of blind man's buff.
He's a movie buff.
CEFR Practice Quiz
She is a real history ____ and knows every detail about ancient Rome.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He is a history ____ and knows almost everything about the civil war.
Word Origin & History
From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
Literary Quotations & Historical Citations
"[…]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]"
— c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
"His face changed from tan to buff."
— 1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 24, in Red Harvest:
"A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]"
— c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
"To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked."
— 1880, Thomas Wright, “buff”, in Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English, containing words from the English writers previous to the nineteenth century which are no longer in use, or are not used in the same sense. And words which are now used only in the provincial dialects, volume 1, London: George Bell and Sons, page 265:
"Not to mention, nudity can be just plain convenient. “Laundry is minimal,” Schulte notes. It also doesn’t hurt that being in the buff spices up his workday."
— 2021 October 18, Ian Lecklitzner, “The Inevitable Rise of the Work-From-Home Nudist”, in MEL Magazine:
Explore More C1 Vocabulary Words
CEFR Practice Quiz
She is a real history ____ and knows every detail about ancient Rome.
CEFR Practice Quiz (Alternate)
He is a history ____ and knows almost everything about the civil war.