Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Chiefly British Slang Printed matter, such as pamphlets, forms, or memorandums, especially of an official nature and deemed of little interest or importance.
- n. Chiefly British Slang Toilet paper.
Wiktionary
- n. UK, obsolete Toilet paper.
- n. Useless papers; now especially official documents, standardized forms, sales and marketing print material etc.
WordNet 3.0
- n. reading materials (documents, written information) that you must read and deal with but that you think are extremely boring
Etymologies
- Shortened form of bumfodder. (Wiktionary)
- Short for bum fodder : bum2 + fodder. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“Am I missing something or is some stupid company in bumf*CK reading Pennsylvania giving a NY truck shit?”
“Nowhere in the bumf is his new job title mentioned.”
“Anyway, we have another plethora of reviews and bumf for you today.”
“He had a wodge of papers with him, official forms, all sorts, the bumf as the pilots called it—Jerry recognized the one you signed that named who your pension went to, and the one about what to do with your body if there was one and anyone had time to bother.”
“The secretary of Elizabeth I's Privy Council is supposed to have submitted the warrant for the execution of Mary Stuart several times, concealed in a pile of lesser bumf, to help the Queen get over the hump.”
“According to the bumf it's a myth, which is much more than a story.”
Philip Pullman's 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'
“According to the bumf in the back, this is part of series retelling myths.”
Philip Pullman's 'The Good Man Jesus and the Scoundrel Christ'
“If you don't like spelling mistakes in election bumf, you'd best avoid the leaflets the SNP are putting out in the Anniesland by-election.”
“If TK, Psi, ESP, Remote Viewing and such are all just a load of bumf, then why do the military even have a budget for such things?”
“Amazingly, nobody stopped to cut themselves, get slapped by groupies, sign their name in blood, or to pick up roadkill, the rabies threat being what it is out here in pickup truck-driving flyover country, West bumf*** D.C.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘bumf’.
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bum phrases/words
how bum is used
bumbag, bum-barrel, bum-beating, bum-blade, bum-boy, bum-brusher, bum cleavage, bum-creeper, bum-dagger, bum-delighting, bum-fluff, bum-fodder and 104 more...
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ɱ
with potential for the labiodental nasal
symphony, bamford, amphibians, chamfer, camphor, ham-fisted, amphetamine, bumf, triumphant, comfortable, amphipod, tomfoolery and 8 more...
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difficult words
ordure, tatterwallop, callipygian, odious, colophon, cynosure, hardener, emollience, valetudinarian, demonym, volage, polysemantic and 259 more...
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Life is just a four-letter word
Everyone's got their favorites. Here are some of mine.
snit, hobo, minx, kiln, loll, pelf, yegg, ugly, bumf, brio, biro, haha and 92 more...
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Professional Scrabble Lexicon (TWL)
A myriad of game-changing words every Scrabble addict must have in his arsenal.
Keep in mind that these are all tried-and-true feasibly playable words selected for their handiness, i.e...paragon, pignora, ganef, suttee, origan, ohia, aioli, abasement, lehr, mho, tallow, harelike and 843 more...
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Outlander series words
A place for me to keep words I found (or found anew) while reading Diana Gabaldon's Outlander series. (Culling my enormous "Learned (or Encountered) in Reading" list.)
gralloch, yeuk, corpse-candle, saprophytic, baldachin, Kermanshah, celandine, tynchal, quaich, mesentery, basidium, dittany and 244 more...
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Look Busy
Get to work!
ergophobia, elucubrate, karoshi, dogsbody, forswonk, moil, deft, assiduous, panurgic, paperasserie, bumf, blackleg and 91 more...
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aozuas's Words
sense data, hyperreality, brouhaha, ibid, apophenia, fnord, lackadaisical, schadenfreude, bildungsroman, ready-made, readymade, tergiversar and 654 more...
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EN - funny (single) words
"Fornication" is not equal to "formication".
Words with funny meaning, spelling or both.barratry, bastinado, bezonian, bibcock, bibliobibuli, biffy, bodewash, boeotian, boondoggle, borborygmic, bosky, brobdingnagian and 729 more...
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oh those crazy brits
hoarding, wrong-foot, bumf, bumph, tosh, whinge, chuffed, gobsmacked, gob, chuff, binman, waffle and 5 more...
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Nifty Misc
rechauffe, merrythought, fossick, flacon, douceur, prandial, barbican, chuffed, whinge, bumf, knackered, ponce and 37 more...
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New Words
I'll list them as I learn them
bumf, impound, pusillanimous, backronym, gorp, verklemft, visual jockey, chupacabra
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TeaSea's list
Words worth espousing - from humbugonline:
http://humbugonline.blogspot.com/2005/01/words-worth-espousing.html
Tweets
Looking for tweets for bumf.
chained_bear "'Here,' he'd said, appearing abruptly out of the dressing room with guitar and drum. He'd handed her a small brown envelope. 'I found these, going through my dad's old bumf in Inverness. I thought you'd maybe want them.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn (NY: Dell, 1997), 78 Jan 17, 2010
teasea Bumf: That portion of the enormous mass of official correspondence which was used for a more undignified purpose than originally intended. Later applied more generally to correspondence and literature of little value.
This was an abbreviation of ‘bumfodder’ current from 1889 as schoolboys’ slang for ‘toilet paper’. In the war it was applied to official correspondence, most of which was viewed as unnecessary. It has acquired general currency for paperwork since World War I. Also spelt ‘bumph’. Apr 15, 2008
yarb See also bumpf. Jan 4, 2008