Definition
nounClipping of difference
"A peach and an apricot? What's the diff?"
"MrX provided close to 100 diffs presented in a lengthy brief divided into sections."— 2024 August 29, Ashley Rindsberg, “How Wikipedia Launders Regime Propaganda”, in Pirate Wires, archived from the original on 29 Aug 2024:
nounClipping of differential
"This function takes that diff and plugs it into the larger structure."
"[Pogo:] A woman outthunk is a woman scorned and you know what's got no fury like that! [...] Mus' I tell you? It's Sunday.
[Albert:] What's the diff? Tell away.
[Pogo, whispering:] Hell."— 1960 March 13, Walt Kelly, Pogo, Sunday, comic strip, →ISBN, page 277:
nounUsed to trash-talk an opposing team at the end of a game by pointing out a skill difference between some role and the same role on the other team.
"tank diff (i.e., the deciding factor in the game was the difference in skill between the teams' tank players)"
nounAny program which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
nounThe output of a diff program, a diff file.
"edit diff"
"I didn't want to waste people's time telling them things they already knew. It's more efficient just to give them the diffs."— 2004, Paul Graham, Great Hackers, Essay:
nounAbbreviation of differential: the differential gear in an automobile.
"This diff is capable of locking up when wheel slip occurs."
"Many operators cursed the early diff and driveline set-ups[.]"— 2000, Bob Foster, Birdum or Bust!, Henley Beach, SA: Seaview Press, page 45:
nounAbbreviation of differential: differential of types of white blood cell in a complete blood count.
"CBC with diff"
"Hemoccult emesis and stool, CBC with diff, PT/PTT, type and cross for PRBCs."— 2006, “Gastroenterology: Esophageal Varices”, in Steven E. Diaz, The Little Black Book of Emergency Medicine (Jones and Bartlett's Little Black Book Series), 2nd edition, Sudbury, MA: Jones and Bartlett Publishers, →ISBN, page 103:
nounClipping of difficulty.
verbTo run a diff program on (files or items) so as to produce a description of the differences between them, as for a patch file.
"As we move through this chapter, you will quickly see the benefits of diffing code changes to drivers, libraries, and applications."— 2011, Gray Hat Hacking : The Ethical Hacker's Handbook, 3rd edition, New York: McGraw-Hill, →ISBN, →OCLC, page 484:
verbTo compare two files or other objects, manually or otherwise.
verbTo win (or to be able to win) a fight against another, with a defined level of difficulty. Usually used when power scaling fictional characters.
adjAbbreviation of different.
"I don't think it's any diff then in grade school when someone said "come on take a drag it will make you look cool""— 2000 August 15, ZedMan2K, “Anti-Leiberman Backlash Already”, in alt.religion.christian.baptist (Usenet):
nameA program, historically part of the Unix operating system, which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
Sentence Examples
You can see the diff between the two versions of the file.
It makes no diff to me whether we stay or go.
The developer used a diff tool to compare the two files.