puff

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A short forceful exhalation of breath.
2. n. A short sudden gust of wind.
3. n. A brief sudden emission of air, vapor, or smoke.
4. n. A short sibilant sound produced by a puff.
5. n. An amount of vapor, smoke, or similar material released in a puff.
6. n. An act of drawing in and expelling the breath, as in smoking tobacco.
7. n. A swelling or rounded protuberance.
8. n. Puff pastry.
9. n. A light soft pad for applying powder or lotion.
10. n. A gathered, protruding portion of fabric.
11. n. A light padded bed covering.
12. n. An approving or flattering recommendation.
13. n. A piece of writing, as on the jacket of a book, containing often exaggerated praise, used for promotional purposes.
14. n. Genetics A localized region of swelling in certain chromosomes indicating the active synthesis of RNA.
15. v. To blow in puffs.
16. v. To come forth in puffs: steam puffing from an engine.
17. v. To breathe forcefully and rapidly: huffed and puffed up the stairs.
18. v. To emit puffs.
19. v. To take puffs on smoking material: puffing on a cigar.
20. v. To swell or seem to swell, as with pride or air. Often used with up: He puffed up and glared at the importuning questioner.
21. v. To emit or give forth in puffs.
22. v. To impel with puffs.
23. v. To smoke (a cigar, for example).
24. v. To inflate or distend.
25. v. To fill with pride or conceit.
26. v. To publicize with often exaggerated praise: publishers who puff their new books.

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. To blow with quick, intermittent blasts; emit a whiff, as of wind, air, or smoke.
2. To blow, as an expression of scorn or contempt; snort; sneer.
3. To breathe with agitation, as after violent exertion.
4. To act or move with flurry and a swelling, bustling appearance; assume importance.
5. To blow; send forth in quick short blasts or whiffs; drive with a blast.
6. To draw smoke through, or send out smoke from.
7. To fill, inflate, or expand with breath or air, and figuratively with pride, vanity, conceit, etc.; swell: frequently with up: as, puffed up with success; puffed with ambition.
8. To praise with exaggeration; give undue or servile praise to.
9. n. A sharp, forcible blast; a whiff; a sudden emission, as of air from the mouth, or smoke from the stack of an engine; also, as much as is suddenly so emitted at one time.
10. n. A puffball.
11. n. An inflated, swollen, light, fluffy, or porous thing or part. In dressmaking, a strip of some fabric gathered and sewed down on both edges, but left full in the middle.
12. n. A light, porous, spongy, or friable cake, generally filled with preserve or the like: as, cream-puffs; jam-puffs.
13. n. An implement consisting of swan's down or a wad of flossy or loose texture, used for applying powder to the hair or skin. See powderpuff.
14. n. Exaggerated or undue praise uttered or written from an interested point of view; especially, a written commendation of a book, an actor's or a singer's performance, a tradesman's goods, or the like.
15. n. One who is puffed up; an inflated, conceited person.
16. n. One who writes puffs.
17. n. A small vessel with minute openings for scattering liquid perfumes.
18. An exclamation of contempt or impatience.
19. In botany, to discharge suddenly a clond of spores, as frequently occurs in certain fungi.

Wiktionary

1. n. A sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth.
2. n. The ability to breathe easily while exerting oneself.
3. n. A small quantity of gas or smoke in the air.
4. n. An act of inhaling smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe.
5. n. A flamboyant or alluring statement about an object's quality.
6. n. The drug cannabis.
7. n. A light cake filled with cream, cream cheese, etc.
8. n. a homosexual; a poof
9. n. life.
10. v. To emit smoke, gas, etc, in puffs.
11. v. To pant.
12. v. To advertise

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A sudden and single emission of breath from the mouth; hence, any sudden or short blast of wind; a slight gust; a whiff.
2. n. Anything light and filled with air. Specifically: (a) A puffball. (b) kind of light pastry. (c) A utensil of the toilet for dusting the skin or hair with powder.
3. n. An exaggerated or empty expression of praise, especially one in a public journal.
4. v. To blow in puffs, or with short and sudden whiffs.
5. v. To blow, as an expression of scorn; -- with at.
6. v. To breathe quick and hard, or with puffs, as after violent exertion.
7. v. To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.
8. v. To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.
9. v. To drive with a puff, or with puffs.
10. v. To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously.
11. v. To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate; to ruffle with puffs; -- often with up.
12. v. To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, or the like; -- often with up.
13. v. To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly.
14. adj. Puffed up; vain.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. blow hard and loudly
2. n. a short light gust of air
3. v. speak in a blustering or scornful manner
4. v. breathe noisily, as when one is exhausted
5. n. bedding made of two layers of cloth filled with stuffing and stitched together
6. n. a soft spherical object made from fluffy fibers; for applying powder to the skin
7. n. a light inflated pastry or puff shell
8. adj. gathered for protruding fullness
9. v. make proud or conceited
10. v. to swell or cause to enlarge,
11. v. suck in or take (air)
12. n. forceful exhalation through the nose or mouth
13. v. smoke and exhale strongly
14. v. praise extravagantly
15. n. a slow inhalation (as of tobacco smoke)
16. n. thick cushion used as a seat
17. n. exaggerated praise (as for promotional purposes)