Chiefly Sc. [f. next vb.]
1. A puff of wind; also a sound resembling this; the ‘spit’ of a cat; a whiff (of tobacco-smoke).
1535. Lyndesay, Ane Satyre of the Thrie Estaits, 2137. Ane fistand flag; a flagartie fuffe.
1804. Tarras, Poems, 67.
| Whan something hin’ her wi’ a skyte, | |
| Gat up, an’ gied a fuff. |
1816. Scott, Antiq., ix. ‘The ghaist … then disappeared like a fuff o’ tobacco.’
1881. Stevenson, Thrawn Janet, in Cornhill Mag., XLIV. 443. ‘There cam’ a clap o’ wund, like a cat’s fuff.’
1895. United Presb. Mag., April, 167. The stillness was unbroken save by the cheerful fuff of the fire.
2. A burst of ill temper; ‘huff,’ ‘fume.’
1834. Carlyle, Lett., 28 Jan., in Froude, Remin. (1882), II. 410. What a miserable fuff thou gettest into, poor old exasperated politician!
1838. Mrs. Carlyle, Lett. (1883) I. 102. I have put the Stimabile in a great fuff—purposely, that I might not have him dangling here in your absence.
1893. Stevenson, Catriona, 235. The causelessness of all this fuff stirred my own bile.
3. ? A soft feathery mass. (Cf. fluff.)
1700. S. L., trans. C. Fryke’s Voy. E. Ind., 47. The Leaves [of the coco-nut tree] spread themselves all in a fuff, and the Nutts under them.
