puff
puff [puff puffs puffed puffing] verb, noun BrE [pʌf] NAmE [pʌf]
verb
1. intransitive, transitive to smoke a cigarette, pipe, etc
•~ (at/on sth) He puffed (away) on his pipe.
•~ sth I sat puffing my cigar.
2. transitive, intransitive to make smoke or steam blow out in clouds; to blow out in clouds
•~ sth (out) Chimneys were puffing out clouds of smoke.
•~ (out) Steam puffed out.
3. intransitive, transitive (+ speech) (informal)to breathe loudly and quickly, especially after you have been running
Syn: ↑gasp
•I was starting to puff a little from the climb.
see also ↑puffed, ↑puffed out
4. intransitive + adv./prep. to move in a particular direction, sending out small clouds of smoke or steam
•The train puffed into the station.
more at huff and puff at ↑huff v.
Verb forms: 
Word Origin:
Middle English: imitative of the sound of a breath, perhaps from Old English pyf (noun), pyffan (verb).
Example Bank:
•Far behind us, puffing and blowing, came Matt.
•He came puffing up the hill.
•He puffed away at his cigar.
•My father sat puffing contentedly on his pipe.
•She puffed and panted behind the others.
•She puffed furiously at her cigarette.
•She was puffing quite hard by the time she reached the office.
•She was still puffing from the climb.
•He hurried down the street, huffing and puffing.
Idioms: ↑puff and pant ▪ ↑puffed up with pride
Derived: ↑puff something out ▪ ↑puff something up ▪ ↑puff up
noun
1. countable an act of breathing in sth such as smoke from a cigarette, or drugs
•He had a few puffs at the cigar.
•Take two puffs from the inhaler every four hours.
2. countable a small amount of air, smoke, etc. that is blown from somewhere
•a puff of wind
•She felt a puff of warm air on her face.
•Puffs of white smoke came from the chimney.
•Any chance of success seemed to vanish in a puff of smoke (= to disappear quickly).
3. countable a hollow piece of light ↑pastry that is filled with cream, jam, etc.
see also ↑cream puff
4. (NAmE also ˈpuff piece)countable (informal, usually disapproving)a piece of writing or speech that praises sb/sth too much
•The press is full of puffs for his new movie.
5. uncountable (informal, especially BrE)breath
•The hill was very steep and I soon ran out of puff.
see also ↑powder puff
Word Origin:
Middle English: imitative of the sound of a breath, perhaps from Old English pyf (noun), pyffan (verb).
Example Bank:
•a little puff of smoke
•a puff on her cigarette
See also: ↑puff and blow ▪ ↑puff piece
|
|
