Undyed leather from the skin of buffalo or similar animals.
[…]; but is in a ſuite of buffe […]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
2
A tool, often one covered with buff leather, used for polishing.
3
A brownish yellow colour.
1693, John Dryden (translator), The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis Translated into English Verse, London: Jacob Tonson, Satire 10, lines 307-308, p. 203, […] a Visage rough, Deform’d, Unfeatur’d, and a Skin of Buff.
His face changed from tan to buff.1929, Dashiell Hammett, chapter 24, in Red Harvest:
4
A military coat made of buff leather.
A diuell in an euerlaſting garment hath him ; / On whoſe hard heart is button’d vp with ſteele : / A Feind, a Fairie, pittileſſe and ruffe : / A Wolfe, nay worſe, a fellow all in buffe […]c. 1594 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Comedie of Errors”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act IV, scene ii], page 94:
5
Informal A person who is very interested in a particular subject.
He’s a real history buff. He knows everything there is to know about the civil war.
6
Video games A change introduced in a patch that makes a character, item, or attack stronger.
7
Video games An effect that makes a character or item stronger.
Roleplaying games
I just picked up an epic damage buff! Let's go gank the other team!
To be in buff, is equivalent to being naked.1880, Thomas Wright, “buff”, in Dictionary of obsolete and provincial English, containing words from the English writers previous to the nineteenth century which are no longer in use, or are not used in the same sense. And words which are now used only in the provincial dialects, volume 1, London: George Bell and Sons, page 265:
1 more example
Not to mention, nudity can be just plain convenient. “Laundry is minimal,” Schulte notes. It also doesn’t hurt that being in the buff spices up his workday.2021 October 18, Ian Lecklitzner, “The Inevitable Rise of the Work-From-Home Nudist”, in MEL Magazine:
10
The greyish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat.
11
Any substance used to dilute (street) drugs in order to increase profits.
2014, “Aldergrove’s 856 gang busted, $400,000 in drugs seized,” CBC News, 30 July, 2014, Police say this 20 ton hydraulic jack was used to press mixtures of cocaine and “buff” into brick.
That's right: I'm taking driver's ed next semester. Hiring an interpreter for CHS and the deaf school outta my own hefty pockets. You're welcome. Oh, and I'm going to get really skinny and buff. All slim like a swimsuit model.2011, Josh Berk, The Dark Days of Hamburger Halpin, Random House Digital, Inc., →ISBN, page 244:
Etymology From buffe (“leather”), from Middle French buffle (“buffalo”).
1
To polish and make shiny by rubbing.
He was already buffing the car's hubs.
2
Video games To make a character or an item stronger.
Roleplaying games
The enchanter buffed the paladin to prepare him to fight the dragon.
I noticed that the pistols were buffed in the update.
3
To modify a medical chart, especially in a dishonest manner.
"Sure thing, I buffed her, and they turfed her to urology, but she bounced back to me!" [...] They attempted to transfer her to urology by modifying her chart (buffing it) to request urine tests, but the doctors in urology sent (bounced) her back.1996, Jeffrey E. Nash, James M. Calonico, The Meaning of Social Interaction: An Introduction to Social Psychology, page 139:
The implication of such an action is an invitation to buff the chart. The medical records department could have prevented the falsification by sending a copy of the chart to the attorney at the same time that they notified the hospital physician of the attorney's request for the chart.2004, Gregory Davis, Pathology and Law, page 121:
4
Arts, Graffiti, Visual artsSlang To remove (graffiti), particularly when done by someone who is not a graffiti writer.
Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent / That made him reel.1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book II, Canto V”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 6:
A man must consider what a blind-man’s-buff is this game of conformity. If I know your sect I anticipate your argument.1841, Ralph Waldo Emerson, “Self-Reliance”, in Essays: First Series:
Etymology From Middle English buffen (“to stutter, stammer”), from Old English byffan (“to mumble, mutter”), from Proto-West Germanic *bubjaną, from Proto-Indo-European *bʰeyH- (“to fear, to be afraid”). More at bive (“tremble, shake”) and bever.
[…] diced buff (buffalo) meat, usually heavily spiced […]2006, Bradley Mayhew, Joe Bindloss, Stan Armington, Nepal:
You will eat water buffalo meat and drink boiled water buffalo milk: buff burgers at Aunt Jane's restaurant, buff mo-mos which are the Tibetan won-tons, and buff steaks at The Globe.1992, Marilyn Stablein, The Census Taker: Stories of a Traveler in India and Nepal, page 62:
Buff
noun
1
UK, Slang A member of the Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes.