different between fuff vs cuff

English

Etymology

Imitative. Compare puff.

Pronunciation

• Rhymes: -?f

Verb

fuff (third-person singular simple present fuffs, present participle fuffing, simple past and past participle fuffed)

1. (dialect, transitive, intransitive) To puff.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Halliwell to this entry?)

Noun

fuff (plural fuffs)

1. (dialect) A puff.
2. (dialect) The spitting of a cat.
3. (dialect) A burst of anger.

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /k?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

From Middle English cuffe, coffe (“glove, mitten”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English cuffie (“hood, cap”), from Medieval Latin cofia, cofea, cuffa, cuphia (“helmet, headdress, hood, cap”), from Frankish *kuf(f)ja (“headdress”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, from Proto-Germanic *kupj? (“cap”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe (“cap”).

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (obsolete) glove; mitten
2. the end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist
3. the end of a pants leg, folded up
4. (informal, plural only) handcuffs

Derived terms

• shoot one's cuffs

Related terms

• cufflinks
• turnup
• off-the-cuff

Translations

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To furnish with cuffs.
2. (transitive) To handcuff.

Translations

Etymology 2

1520, “to hit”, apparently of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian kuffa (“to push, shove”) or Swedish kuffa (“to knock, thrust, strike”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (sku?), from Proto-Indo-European *skewb?-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skuba? (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”).

Germanic cognates include Low German kuffen (“to box the ears”), German kuffen (“to thrash”). More at scuff, shove, scuffle.

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.
   • [They] with their quills did all the hurt they could, / And cuff'd the tender chickens from their food.

2. (intransitive) To fight; to scuffle; to box.

   • While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport.

3. To buffet.

   • cuffed by the gale

Translations

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.
   • many a bitter kick and cuff

Etymology 3

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (Scotland) The scruff of the neck.