Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A clown; a jester: a court buffoon.
- n. A person given to clowning and joking.
- n. A ludicrous or bumbling person; a fool.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. One who makes a practice of amusing others by tricks, odd gestures and postures, jokes, and other vulgar pleasantries; a droll; a merryandrew; a clown; a jester.
- n. Synonyms See zany.
- Characteristic of a buffoon; buffoonish.
- To act the part of a buffoon.
- To make ridiculous.
Wiktionary
- n. One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
- n. pejorative An unintentionally ridiculous person.
- v. To behave like a buffoon
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. A man who makes a practice of amusing others by low tricks, antic gestures, etc.; a droll; a mimic; a harlequin; a clown; a merry-andrew.
- adj. Characteristic of, or like, a buffoon.
- v. rare To act the part of a buffoon.
- v. To treat with buffoonery.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a rude or vulgar fool
- n. a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior
Etymologies
- From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone ("jester"), from buffare ("to puff out the cheeks") (Wiktionary)
- French bouffon, from Old Italian buffone, from buffa, jest, from buffare, to puff, of imitative origin. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“This buffoon is the most self-centered idiot I have ever seen or heard.”
Think Progress » O’Reilly Claims He Is Personally Responsible For Lower Gas Prices
“This ignorant buffoon is a huge embarassment to his state and this country.”
“Joe Wilson is a boring buffoon from a district where the federal pork barrel has been flowing for years but, that could stop in a hurry with such an idiot representing the district.”
Heckler Wilson 'a decent guy' with lock on district, observers say
“I know you love Al Gore but the buffoon is gone, even his home state didn't want him.”
“Any Dem who thinks this buffoon is going to reach across the aisle as he comes out of the gate is deluded.”
Think Progress » Why Scott Brown Cannot Be Trusted To Work Proactively To Reform Health Care
“I think it boils down to the simple precept that the man is a friggin buffoon and his mouth has a tendency to get several steps ahead of his brain.”
“Why anyone would even think of interviewing this loser & lying buffoon is beyond me.”
Think Progress » Gingrich: If Republicans Shut Down The Government, It Will Be Obama’s Fault
“And ElBruce, trying to say stupid or buffoon is a substitute for a racist term is borderline libel.”
“Now I can add, What makes you think this scolding buffoon is going to win anything except, perhaps, a kiss on the cheek from Ralph Nader?”
“April 23rd, 2010 3: 06 pm ET thank goodness this buffoon is no longer in power. he was, and still is, a disgrace to the human race.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘buffoon’.
-
3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
-
Of Imitative Origin
Words formed in imitation of the sound of the things they signify.
bawl, biff, blizzard, blob, blooper, bob, boff, bomb, bonkers, boo, borborygmus, brouhaha and 148 more...
-
3/4 year Vocab List
voracious, indiscriminate, eminent, steeped, replete, awe, buffoon, abound, technology, prognosticate, automaton, matron and 96 more...
-
funny & derogatory
WARNING: VERY EXPLICIT. YOU HAVE BEEN WARNED.
funny derogatory names, quotes, phrases.
( open list, randomness, ad hom, ad hominem )
also see:
buttfucking quitter, dirty sanchez, donkey punch, falcon punch, assbadger, unicorn turd, assclown, fudgenut, quackery, friggin homo, buttmuncher, jackwagon and 274 more... -
runciblespooner's list
skrimshanker, spooner, runcible, buffoon, bounder, dolt, palooka, ultracrepidation, umbrella, cunt, cancer
-
Words banned in the Irish parliament
According to the Irish Times, the Irish Independent, and other media, these words have been deemed "unparliamentary."
brat, buffoon, chancer, communist, corner boy, coward, fascist, gurrier, guttersnipe, rat, scumbag, scurrilous and 3 more...
-
Send in the clowns
Bozo, Feste, Ronald McDonald, Krusty, Touchstone, Yorick, The Gravediggers, Clown, Dromio of Syracuse, Dromio of Ephesus, Puck, clown fish and 88 more...
-
I am costanza, lord of the "idiots"!
moron, dolt, knucklehead, buffoon, clown, imbecile, asinine, slow, witless, dimwitted, blockhead, clueless and 10 more...
-
big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6691 more...
-
Twitter favourites
The new favourite words of people on Twitter.
A script searches Twitter for "X is my new favourite word" and adds it to this list.
See also:
thunderfuck, incredible, merp, sara, flopparoo, smother, fugly, buer, plum, canny, nefelibata, cuntbucket and 1972 more... -
~~Olde-Fashioned Insults~~
ragamuffin, muttonchops, tatterdemalion, nincompoop, whippersnapper, bootlicker, backscratcher, loggerhead, weisenheimer, hornswoggler, thimblerigger, quacksalver and 111 more...
-
Is it morning yet?
coterie, lexeme, counterbalance, forthright, pigtail, ponytail, french-braid, barrette, listless, counsel, sitting duck, dead duck and 268 more...
-
Unsavoury Types
insults, epithets, etc.
drotchel, drossel, drazel, flutch, lollard, scobberlotcher, ragabash, faineant, cad, buffoon, martinet, tosspot and 116 more...
-
my GRE words
pedant, wizened, histrionic, logorrhea, frenetic, approbation, quibble, knell, acclivity, droog, prevarication, aplomb and 182 more...
-
-oons (once of more than one syllable)
Originally this list was to contain multisyllabic words that end in "oon," but as you can see from the comments, all hell broke loose.
doubloon, poltroon, spittoon, patroon, dragoon, bassoon, platoon, typhoon, rangoon, maroon, pontoon, monsoon and 96 more...
-
Words grabbed from real life conversa...
If I've seen it, heard it, or marvelled at it, I'll stick it here.
cruft, ermine, redundant, shakespearean, camino, marvelous, stupendous, chagrin, shaven, sleek, smug, stillness and 325 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for buffoon.
marky yes ruzuzu that's exactly what happened. gettin my baboons and buffoons all mixed up :P Mar 29, 2013
ruzuzu No worries--we'll just calmly add a madeupical definition in the comments over on baffoon. Something about how it combines the meanings for buffoon and baboon, perhaps? Mar 29, 2013
marky i just realized i've been spelling buffoon wrong my entire life (spelling it baffoon). i feel like such a buffoon now. *facepalm* *wordnik crisis* Mar 29, 2013