buffet1
/ˈbʊfeɪ
/ /ˈbʌfeɪ /noun
1A meal consisting of several dishes from which guests serve themselves: [as modifier]: a cold buffet lunch...
- Local residents enjoyed a champagne reception on arrival, a lavish buffet of hot and cold dishes all served with live piano music.
- This buffet meal of cold and hot hors d' oeuvres often includes various forms of herring, meats, cheeses, and vegetables.
- Adding to the authenticity of the occasion will be a buffet dinner to serve as the wedding reception.
Synonyms
cold table, cold meal, self-service, smorgasbord
2A room or counter in a station, hotel, or other public building selling light meals or snacks.There's no dining car, which adds a bit of adventure - you have to judge your stops and make dashes for the station buffet....
- He's an average man - not too bright, not over-ambitious - but is delighted to have a beautiful wife, May, who runs the station buffet.
- The buffet on the station was icy cold, with a failed heating system.
Synonyms
cafe, cafeteria, snack bar, canteen, salad bar, refreshment stall/counter, restaurant
2.1 (also buffet car) British A railway carriage selling light meals or snacks.Now the steam train's award-winning buffet car, which boasts a host of real ales including York Brewery's masterful Stonewall, is to run every day during the summer....
- After queueing for 27 minutes in a line of just 10 people it soon became obvious the concept of speed was pretty alien to the woman in the buffet car, too.
- There will be a buffet car and a licensed bar on board.
3ˈbʌfɪt North American term for sideboard (sense 1).She took her clean house-dress from a pile of three that she had carefully hidden in the buffet drawer under the kitchen towels....
- For rustic country decor in the kitchen, use open shelves, hutches, buffets, plate racks and cupboards for storage.
Synonyms
sideboard, cabinet, china cupboard, counter
Origin
Early 18th century (denoting a sideboard): from French, from Old French bufet 'stool', of unknown origin.
Rhymes
buffet2
/ˈbʌfɪt/verb (buffets, buffeting, buffeted) [with object]
1(Especially of wind or waves) strike repeatedly and violently; batter: rough seas buffeted the coast [no object]: the wind was buffeting at their bodies...
- We rope the house to trees along the shore to prevent it from drifting away when we are buffeted by strong winds during the area's frequent tempests.
- The international order is like a mighty river and our region is but a small boat buffeted by angry waves.
- The world has been buffeted by waves of terror that have traumatised Eastern as well as Western societies.
Synonyms
batter, pound, beat/knock/dash against, push against, lash, strike, hit, bang
1.1Knock (someone) off course: he was buffeted from side to side...
- Debris pelted down from the rolled edges of the fireball like meteors, buffeting those who had been lucky enough to avoid the initial explosion, slamming them to the ground.
- But she was again buffeted away, as helpless as a dandelion seed.
- Jumped on the 8:36 to Cannon Street, got buffeted and barged by all the commuters and knocked off balance by the big backpack on me.
1.2(Of difficulties) afflict (someone) over a long period: they were buffeted by a major recession...
- Noise pollution is insidious says actor Randy Hughson, who brings his portrayal of Doyle, a man buffeted by incessant noise, to the Magnetic North Festival.
- Or they were tormented souls, buffeted by external dilemmas and prior vulnerabilities.
- There's something about her on-screen bearing that invites tragedy, her characters are relentlessly buffeted by ill-fortune.
Synonyms
afflict, trouble, harm, distress, burden, bother, beset, harass, worry, oppress, strain, stress, tax, torment, blight, bedevil, harrow, cause trouble to, cause suffering to
noun
1 dated A blow or punch.Soothly, as he followed after me, I had a mind to turn about and deal him a buffet on the face, to see if I could but draw one angry word from him....
- Edgar struck him a buffet on the face which sent him reeling backwards.
- But this blow was but a buffet with the hand, compared with the thunderbolt that fate was preparing to launch against my bosom.
1.1A shock or misfortune: the daily buffets of urban civilization...
- What is even more violent is that in order to escape further pain and buffets, Cheryl found herself clinging for salvation in this instant to the very same social yardstick used to measure her a non-person.
- Why count the possible buffets and ignore the rewards of fortune?
- To experience the enervating, exasperating and humbling feeling that comes from trying to plumb the depths of this most amazing subject we call mathematics, is to transcend the limits of human capability and fortify oneself against the buffets of life.
Synonyms
shock, jolt, jar, upset, setback, crisis, catastrophe, blow;
misfortune, trouble, problem, difficulty, hardship, adversity, distress, disaster, misadventure;
affliction, sorrow, misery, tribulation, woe, pain, tragedy, calamity, vicissitude;
trial, cross, burden
2 [mass noun] Aeronautics another term for buffeting. fifteen degrees of flap induce marked buffet...
- As an old fighter-pilot, I don't like buffet because sometimes it signals a pre-stall condition.
- All of a sudden, I sensed the uneasy feeling of the aircraft going into stall buffet.
- This unit had to be carefully installed to ensure a tight fit, but it also virtually eliminated the tail buffet.
Origin
Middle English: from Old French buffeter (verb), buffet (noun), diminutive of bufe 'a blow'.
buffet3
/ˈbʌfɪt/noun Scottish & Northern English
A low stool or hassock.There was a buffet beneath one window, and china closets flanked the fireplace where a fire crackled behind the fender.
Origin
Late Middle English: from Old French bufet, of unknown origin.