buff¹ /buf/

1. Orig buffalo-hide
2. Now white leather from which the grain surface has been removed, used for army accoutrements
3. A military coat
4. The colour of buff, a dull brownish yellow
5. The bare skin (informal)
6. A buff-stick or buff-wheel
7. (in pl) certain regiments in the British Army, from their former buff-coloured facings (eg East Kent Regiment, Ross-shire Buffs)
8. A member of a party whose colour is buff
9. An enthusiast, fan, expert (orig a keen attender at fires, so called from the buff uniform of the former New York volunteer firemen) (informal)

To polish with a buff

1. Brownish-yellow
2. Having attractively well-developed muscles (informal)

buffˈer noun

A person or thing that buffs or polishes. See also buffer¹

buffˈing noun

The act or process of polishing

buffˈ-coat or buffˈ-jerkin noun

1. A strong, military coat
2. A soldier

buffˈ-leather noun

buffˈ-stick, buffˈ-wheel or buffˈing-wheel noun

A stick or wheel covered with buff-leather or the like, and impregnated with an abrasive for polishing

buffˈ-tip moth noun

A European moth with buff wing tips

in the buff (informal)

Naked

buff² /buf/

1. A dull blow or its sound
2. A buffet, blow or stroke (obsolete)

1. To strike, esp with a dull sound
2. To burst out

blindman's buff see under blind

• coarctation
• coarctations
• coarse
• coarse fish
• coarse fishes
• coarse fishing
• coarse-grained
• coarsely
• coarse metal
• coarsen
• coarsened
• coarseness
• coarsenesses
• coarsening
• coarsens
• stingfish
• stingier
• stingiest
• stingily
• stinginess
• stinginesses
• stinging
• stingingly
• stinging nettle
• stinging nettles