muff

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“
There she was, in her best boots, and her best dress, and her best hat, and her sealskin mantle (not easily to be surpassed in the town), and her muff to match (nearly), and concealed in the muff were the two very hot potatoes.

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Definitions (26)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. transitive verb To perform or handle clumsily; bungle. See Synonyms at botch.
  2. transitive verb Sports To fail to make (a catch).
  3. intransitive verb To perform an act clumsily.
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Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (12)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

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Examples (50)

  • The putting on of the muff was the most humiliating incident of my life. —  A Mind That Found Itself
  • There is a warrant out for the muff-diving drunk-driving star of I Know Who Killed Me Lindsay Lohan. —  Gawker
  • Natalie's maiden muff is hers to do with as she wishes -- sexual desires, values and limits vary wildly, and as long as no one gets hurt, t'ain't nobody's business what you do. —  AlterNet.org Main RSS Feed
  • There is a warrant out for the muff-diving drunk-driving star of SigSauer: If this were a gay male star would Gawker dare write "warrant is out for the cock-gobbling star of ....?" —  Gawker
  • There is a warrant out for the muff-diving drunk-driving star of Midweek Madness, in which we "read" the celeb weeklies, in search of "newsworthy" gossip. —  Gawker
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Related

Roget's II Roget's II: The New Thesaurus

Allen's Allen's Synonyms and Antonyms

Used in the same context Used in the Same Context

tippet ·  mitten ·  muffler ·  pelisse ·  boa ·  scarf ·  parasol ·  bonnet ·  cape ·  raincoat ·  kerchief ·  trimming

Used in the same contextWord Family

muff:   muffs ·  muffed
Roget's II: The New Thesaurus, Third Edition by the Editors of the American Heritage® Dictionary. Copyright © 2003, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

Etymologies (5)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (2)

  1. Origin unknown.
  2. Dutch mof, from Middle Dutch moffel, from Old French mofle, mitten, from Medieval Latin muffula, perhaps of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (3)

  1. Early modern English muffe, from Middle English *muffe (in deriv. verb muffle), from Dutch mof, a muff (later G. muff), = SW. muff = Danish muffe; prob., after F. moufle, etc. (see muffle), from Middle Latin *muffa, diminutive muffula, moffula, a muff, from Old High German *mouwa, Middle High German mouwe = Low German moue, maue = Middle Dutch mouwe, Dutch maauw, a wide, hanging sleeve. Hence muffle.
  2. = Dutch muffen, dote, = German muffen, be sulky, sulk. cf. freq. muffleand mumble.
  3. Cf. Dutch mof, a clown, boor; from the verb.
 

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/məf/
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