Definitions for the word "Buffer" from multiple English dictionaries.
1. n.
1 thing that deadens impact, esp. A device on a train or at the end of a track. 2 substance that maintains the constant acidity of a solution. 3 computing temporary memory area or queue for data. [imitative]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
2. n.
Slang silly or incompetent old man. [perhaps from *buffer1]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
3. slang
a navy term for a boatswain’s mate, one of whose duties it
is—or was—to administer the “cat.”
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864
4. slang
a familiar expression for a jolly acquaintance, probably from
the _French_ BOUFFARD, a fool or clown; a “jolly old BUFFER,” said of a
good-humoured or liberal old man. In 1737, a BUFFER was a “rogue that
killed good sound horses for the sake of their skins, by running a long
wire into them.”—_Bacchus and Venus._ The term was once applied to
those who took false oaths for a consideration; but though the word has
fallen into disuse there is no particular reason for imagining that the
practice has.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864
5. slang
a woman employed in a Sheffield warehouse to give the final
polish to goods previously to their being plated.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864
6. slang
a dog. Dogs’ skins were formerly in great request—hence the
term BUFF, meaning in old English _to skin_. It is still used in the
ring, BUFFED meaning stripped naked, though the term BUFF, as applied to
the skin, is most likely due to its resemblance to the leather so
called. “Stripped to the BUFF,” cannot have any reference to dog
skinning, though it may have originally referred to the BUFF jerkins
worn under defensive armour. In Irish cant, BUFFER is a _boxer_. The
BUFFER of a railway-carriage doubtless received its very appropriate
name from the old pugilistic application of this term.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864
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