buffet

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A large sideboard with drawers and cupboards.
2. n. A counter or table from which meals or refreshments are served.
3. n. A restaurant having such a counter.
4. n. A meal at which guests serve themselves from various dishes displayed on a table or sideboard.
5. adj. Informally served: a buffet luncheon.
6. n. A blow or cuff with or as if with the hand.
7. v. To hit or beat, especially repeatedly.
8. v. To strike against forcefully; batter: winds that buffeted the tent. See Synonyms at beat.
9. v. To drive or force with or as if with repeated blows: was buffeted about from job to job by the vagaries of the economy.
10. v. To force (one's way) with difficulty.
11. v. To force one's way with difficulty: a ship buffeting against the wind.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A blow with the fist; a box; a cuff; a slap; hence, hard usage of any kind suggestive of blows; a violent shock or concussion: as, “fortune's buffets,”
2. n. A blast of wind.
3. To strike with the hand or fist; box; beat.
4. To beat in contention; contend against as if with blows: as, to buffet the billows.
5. To exercise at boxing; box; contend with blows of the fists; hence, to force one's way by buffeting.
6. n. A cupboard, sideboard, or closet, designed to hold china, crystal, plate, and other like articles.
7. n. The space set apart for refreshments in public places.
8. n. That part of the cabinet-work of an organ which incloses the pipes.
9. n. Same as buffet-stool. Wright, Prov. Dict.

Wiktionary

1. n. A counter or sideboard from which food and drinks are served or may be bought.
2. n. Food laid out in this way, to which diners serve themselves.
3. n. A blow or cuff with or as if with the hand, or by any other solid object or the wind.
4. v. transitive To strike or blow with a buffet or buffets.
5. n. A low stool; a hassock.

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A cupboard or set of shelves, either movable or fixed at one side of a room, for the display of plate, china, etc., a sideboard.
2. n. A counter for food or refreshments.
3. n. A restaurant containing such a counter, as at a railroad station, or place of public gathering.
4. n. A meal set out on a buffet[2], arranged so that guests may serve themselves and choose those items that they desire. Diners usually take a plate provided and move in a line past the items on the buffet[2], placing those items they desire on the plate, to be eaten at some convenient place.
5. n. A blow with the hand; a slap on the face; a cuff.
6. n. A blow from any source, or that which affects like a blow, as the violence of winds or waves; a stroke; an adverse action; an affliction; a trial; adversity.
7. n. A small stool; a stool for a buffet or counter.
8. v. To strike with the hand or fist; to box; to beat; to cuff; to slap.
9. v. To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against.
10. v. To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.
11. v. To exercise or play at boxing; to strike; to smite; to strive; to contend.
12. v. To make one's way by blows or struggling.

WordNet 3.0

1. n. usually inexpensive bar
2. n. a meal set out on a buffet at which guests help themselves
3. v. strike, beat repeatedly
4. v. strike against forcefully
5. n. a piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers