gaff1
/ɡaf
/- The five-part sculpture tells a story from the folk history of Kiltimagh and illustrates the drama of the catching of salmon by the illegal gaff and spear on winter nights in the early 1900s.
- This fish we fight for about 15 minutes, but we are using a small diameter wind-on and cannot get the fish within range of the gaff even though we have most of the leader on the reel.
- Vessels built of ferrocement may be accepted if they have a gaff or traditional schooner rig.
- Therefore, I favour such deceptive tactics as dragging a small, weighted hook wrapped in colourful wool across the sandy bottom and gaffing the unsuspecting honeymooners mid-coitus.
- With a combination of moving back up the beach and leaning over almost 180 degrees backwards to put pressure on the rod, we managed to get it into the surf, whereupon our excellent guide leaped in and gaffed it.
- Adams fought the fish for over half an hour before he finally reeled in and gaffed the exhausted bass.
Origin
Middle English: from Provençal gaf 'hook'; related to gaffe.
One type of gaff is a stick with a metal hook used for landing large fish: it comes from Provençal gaf ‘a hook’. In British slang a gaff can also be someone's home, a use dating from the 1930s and probably derived from an old term for a fair or music hall. The gaff ‘in blow the gaff’, though, may be linked to an early 19th-century sense, ‘noise or pretence’. Letting out a secret indiscreetly could also be regarded as a gaffe (early 20th century), an embarrassing blunder or faux pas, which brings us back to metal hooks. In French gaffe means ‘a boat hook’ and, informally, ‘a blunder’, in which sense it came into English in the early 20th century.
Rhymes
gaff2
/ɡaf
/- But there was a lanky business major and a tough dude who competed in rodeos on weekends as well, and didn't take gaff from anyone, including the GDA.
Origin
Early 19th century (in the senses 'outcry; nonsense' and in the phrase blow the gaff 'let out a secret'): of unknown origin.
gaff3
/ɡaf/- The rules were, to begin with, difficult to master, since, as a journalist, one's entire instinct was to blow the gaff.
- Well… we could hardly blow the gaff on a fairytale, could we?
- To sugar the pill they sent me to review a very good book, which appeared recently, The Spanish Cockpit, which blows the gaff pretty well on what has been happening.
Origin
Early 19th century: of unknown origin.
gaff4
/ɡaf/- It is a luxurious gaff with seven reception rooms and Prince Michael is getting away with one of the best housing benefit scams in the land.
- One's a millionaire, one has done really well and lives in Ireland, one of them has a big gaff in the New Town.
- I may have liked God when I was three, as I testified on the study wall, but He certainly wouldn't be very fond of me when He found out what I'd done to His gaff in Acton.
Origin
Mid 18th century (in sense 'a fair'): of unknown origin.