Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun Decaying leaves and branches covering a forest floor.
  • noun Fine coal; slack.
  • noun The buttocks.
  • noun A stiff flour pudding boiled in a cloth bag or steamed.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • In golf, to miss a stroke by hitting the ground behind the ball.
  • noun Dough; paste of bread.
  • noun Nautical, a stiff flour pudding boiled in a bag or cloth: as, sailors' plum duff.
  • noun Vegetable growth covering forest-ground.
  • noun Fine coal.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun Prov. Eng. Dough or paste.
  • noun A stiff flour pudding, boiled in a bag; -- a term used especially by seamen.
  • transitive verb To treat or manipulate so as to give a specious appearance to; to fake; hence, to cheat.
  • transitive verb In Australia, to alter the brands on (cattle, horses, etc.); to steal (cattle, etc.), and alter their brands.
  • noun slang the buttocks.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun dialectal Dough.
  • noun A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed
  • verb slang, obsolete To disguise something to make it look new.
  • verb Australia To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
  • verb UK, slang To beat (up).
  • verb US, golf To hit the ground behind the ball.
  • noun Scotland, US Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.
  • noun Coal dust.
  • noun slang The bits left in the bottom of the bag after the booty has been consumed, like crumbs.
  • noun Something spurious or fake; a counterfeit, a worthless thing.
  • noun baseball, slang, 1800s An error.
  • adjective UK Worthless; not working properly, defective.
  • noun US, slang The buttocks.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a stiff flour pudding steamed or boiled usually and containing e.g. currants and raisins and citron

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Origin unknown.]

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Dialectal variation of dough.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Representing a northern pronunciation of dough.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from duffer.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain; probably imitative.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

Origin uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word duff.

Examples

  • October 11th, 2007 at 2: 56 pm hilary duff is an anjel she is the best ilke her very much i wish that i wana to meet here onse in my life she is the best actor i like here very much vikki Says:

    Hillary Duff Punk’d 2006

  • September 12th, 2006 at 7: 48 am cooool hilary duff is sooo cuteeee and soo butiful ilove you hilary soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo mmuch (L) (L) (L)

    Hillary Duff Punk’d 2006

  • April 26th, 2007 at 5: 26 pm hillary duff is so class i love her she the best in the world xxxxxxxx

    Hilary Duff Quality Photo Gallery Part 1 2006

  • i totally think that hilary duff is soooooooooooooo cool i love her in lizzie mguire she is a really good actor maria Says:

    Hillary Duff Punk’d 2006

  • The only thing getting up the duff will be my plums.

    Let the boy buy a butt plug Gordon! 2008

  • In tis innerluud it duff beefaw, tat I, wun snout by name duff prezent a wall

    emo wall is sad - Lolcats 'n' Funny Pictures of Cats - I Can Has Cheezburger? 2008

  • What's known as the duff layer is suddenly removed, and this duff, or decaying organic material on the forest floor, is habitat for several species of insects, spiders, small vertebrates, bacteria and fungi.

    digg.com: Top News Digg 2011

  • I've seen them live numerous times and I don't recall a duff gig, in fact most were glorious riotous funky celebrations.

    Word Magazine - Comments 2009

  • I've seen them live numerous times and I don't recall a duff gig, in fact most were glorious riotous funky celebrations.

    Word Magazine - Comments 2009

  • I've seen them live numerous times and I don't recall a duff gig, in fact most were glorious riotous funky celebrations.

    Word Magazine - Comments 2009

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • pass counterfeit goods

    March 13, 2007

  • Organic matter on the forest floor.

    July 12, 2007

  • Or one's backside. ;-) The mother of a friend of mine used to get her kids moving by telling them to get off their duffs.

    July 12, 2007

  • Goodness gracious!

    Oh (relief) I thought you said "On one's backside."

    July 12, 2007

  • Duff on one's duff would be rather disturbing.

    July 12, 2007

  • Indeed it would!

    Actually I like the "backside" definition of duff.

    July 12, 2007

  • And the reasons are legion. They vary

    from inherited duff chromosomes

    to car-crash damage and breakdowns...

    - Peter Reading, There seem to be so many of them,, from Tom O' Bedlam's Beauties, 1981

    June 29, 2008

  • Plum Duff chromosomes - mmm, mmm, yummy!

    June 29, 2008

  • To enhance the value of Sunday to the crew, they are allowed on that day a pudding, or, as it is called, a "duff." This is nothing more than flour boiled with water, and eaten with molasses. It is very heavy, dark, and clammy, yet it is looked upon as a luxury, and really forms an agreeable variety with salt beef and pork. Many a rascally captain has made up with his crew, for hard usage, by allowing them duff twice a week on the passage home.

    - Richard Henry Dana Jr., Two Years Before the Mast, ch. 4

    September 6, 2008

  • (see also plum duff)

    September 6, 2008

  • "We start to move. 'I'm getting bloody hungry,' was a frequent statement, and it came most frequently from Edgington. He was a known hungry guts. One one man outdid him, Driver Kidgell. Kidgell it was said, could smell a sausage at 300 yards - and hear a tin of duff being opened a mile away."

    - Spike Milligan, 'Mussolini: My Part In His Downfall.'

    April 18, 2009