"puff" Definition

Definitions for the word "puff" from multiple English dictionaries.

1. n.
1 a short quick blast of breath or wind. B sound of or like this. C small quantity of vapour, smoke, etc., emitted in one blast (puff of smoke). 2 light pastry cake containing jam, cream, etc. 3 gathered material in a dress etc. (puff sleeve). 4 extravagantly enthusiastic review, advertisement, etc., esp. In a newspaper. 5 = *powder-puff. v. 1 emit a puff of air or breath; blow with short blasts. 2 (usu. Foll. By away, out, etc.) Emit or move with puffs (puffing away at his cigar; train puffed out). 3 (usu. In passive; often foll. By out) colloq. Put out of breath (arrived puffed). 4 breathe hard; pant. 5 (usu. Foll. By up, out) inflate; swell (his eye was puffed up). 6 (usu. Foll. By out, up, away) blow or emit (dust, smoke, etc.) With a puff. 7 smoke (a pipe etc.) In puffs. 8 (usu. As puffed up adj.) Elate; make proud or boastful. 9 advertise or promote with exaggerated or false praise. puff up = sense 8 of v. [imitative]
Source: Oxford English Dictionary, 1884
2. slang
to blow up, or swell with praise; declared by a writer in the _Weekly Register_, as far back as 1732, to be illegitimate. “PUFF has become a cant word, signifying the applause set forth by writers, &c. to increase the reputation and sale of a book, and is an excellent stratagem to excite the curiosity of gentle readers.” Lord Bacon, however, used the word in a similar sense a century before. Sheridan also seems to have remembered the use of the word, _vide_ Mr. PUFF.
Source: The Slang Dictionary, 1864

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