Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. Flattering, often exaggerated praise and publicity, especially when used for promotional purposes.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. Systematic puffing; extravagant praise.
Wiktionary
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. The act of puffing; bestowment of extravagant commendation.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a flattering commendation (especially when used for promotional purposes)
Examples
“Reality: puffery is anything a judge, NAD, or arbitrator says a consumer clearly should not rely on.”
“They have every reason to engage in puffery regarding the less fraudulent nature of its clickers.”
Google and Click Fraud: Behind the Numbers - Freakonomics Blog - NYTimes.com
“In response to the shareholder lawsuit, Moody's argued that its claims to independence and ratings integrity were just "puffery" - legalese for innocent exaggeration:”
“The puffery is gone, it’s stripped down to the facts that I could verify (and a couple that I couldn’t), everything is footnoted, and it is now completely neutral.”
“But of course, it’s Hollywood, and the gentlemen on the tape who have been caught blatantly contradicting themselves, swanning about and engaging in puffery of the first order, are shameless enough, and arrogant enough not to care.”
Hollywood Producers Damn Themselves With Their Own Words | Disinformation
“Celebrity chatter is my guilty pleasure, but the Fug Girls call the puffery to account.”
“For evidence of Clinton's "puffery" we have timelines of when things happened, we have her own schedules, etc.”
“For evidence of Obama's "puffery" we have a Republican senator running for re-election.”
“Such "puffery" was not unique, nor was it limited to the beauty products available for women.”
“In the old days, marketers were accused of "puffery": purveying falsehoods about the traits of the products they sold, as when Listerine claimed to prevent colds.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘puffery’.
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This is not a list
you know that thing where the Eskimos have 50 words for snow?
little white lie, big lie, the Big Lie, economical with t..., muddy the waters, fabrication, deception, lies, damned lies..., façade, slander, omission, web of lies and 165 more...
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Especially
Being a list of words which have "especially" in their definitions.
wringing-machine, especially, device, field, scrip, hit, catch, take, buck, flip, effluvium, proselyte and 107 more...
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discoveries
These are lexical items new to me that I've discovered in actual use (i.e. not in dictionaries, lists, or this site).
Looking back over this list, I haven't the slightest idea what mos...haymow, hawsepipe, stridor, bariatric, autotelic, apotropaic, cyanotype, tourelle, autobody, zudecca, stifado, corbeille and 1073 more...
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business terms
I'm studying business law, this list will contain words I would like to implement in my language and terminology.
commingling, novation, indemnification, prospectus, quorum, commingled, agent, trustee, honorariums, fiduciary, usurp, dissolution and 94 more...
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The things they carried (List 2)
Listening to this as an audio book for the second time. Tim O'Brien uses simple words and phrases to great effect. Very few unfamilar and big words . The writing style reminds me of words from Joh...
The, Things, They, Carried, meant, fond, By necessity,, presented to him, far beyond, against the brick..., reaching, taut and 2940 more...
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Flirtation, Affairs, and Flattery
Sort of Rococo-style affairs
dangleation, sawder, badinage, bavardage, philander, coquette, fop, frippet, trifler, puffery, frothy, palaver and 30 more...
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Communication
wheedle, pablum, hokum, puffery, voluble, jibe, jive, persiflage, laconic, nonplus, gauche, hortatory and 27 more...
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A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Ge...
Words culled from A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius by Dave Eggers.
stockbrokering, tempera, herpetologist, bloodred, memoir-y, remaindered, planethood, puffery, pshaw, naif, gimmickry, poseurism and 48 more...
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SinCityKitty's list
Tweets
Looking for tweets for puffery.
Comments
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