different between guard vs buffer

English

Alternative forms

• gard, garde, guarde (obsolete)

Etymology

For verb: From early Middle French or late Old French (circa 14th cent) guarder (“to keep, ward, guard, save, preserve, etc.”), from Frankish *ward?n, from Proto-Germanic *ward?n? (“to guard, protect”). Cognate with Old English weardian (whence English to ward). Compare French garder. See also English regard.

For noun: From Middle English garde, from early Middle French or late Old French guarde (“a guardian, warden, keeper”) (whence modern French garde), from the verb guarder. Doublet of garda, which is from Irish.

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /???d/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /???d/
• Rhymes: -??(?)d

Noun

guard (plural guards)

1. A person who, or thing that, protects or watches over something.

2. (Ireland) A garda; a police officer.
   • 2016, Anastasia Dukova, A History of the Dublin Metropolitan Police and its Colonial Legacy, Springer (?ISBN), page 139

     The Garda Regulations 1924 required a candidate for appointment as a guard to be able to produce satisfactory references as to his character

3. (military) A squad responsible for protecting something.

4. The part of a sword that protects the wielder's hand.
5. A part of a machine which blocks access to dangerous parts.

6. A watchchain.
7. (Australia) A panel of a car that encloses the wheel area, especially the front wheels.
8. (uncountable) A state of caution; posture of defence.
9. Something worn to protect part of the body, e.g. the shins in cricket.
10. (basketball) A relatively short player, playing farther from the basket than a forward or center.
11. (cricket) The position on the popping crease where a batsman makes a mark to align himself with the wicket; see take guard.
12. (American football) Either of two offensive positions between the center and each of the offensive tackles, whose main responsibilities are to protect the quarterback, and open up "holes" through which offensive players can run.
13. (sports) A player playing a position named guard.
14. (rail transport) An employee, normally travelling in the last vehicle of a train, responsible for the safety of the train.
    • 1938, Xavier Herbert, Capricornia, New York: D. Appleton-Century, 1943, Chapter IX, p. 141, [4]

      When an engineer wished to stop a swiftly moving train he had first to whistle to the guard requesting him to apply the hand-brake of the van, and then apply the hand-brake of the engine. Guards did not always hear.

15. (computing, programming) A Boolean expression that must evaluate to true for a branch of program execution to continue.

Synonyms

• (the part of a sword that protects the wielder's hand): quillon
• (part of machine blocking dangerous parts): protection
• (panel of a car enclosing a wheel): fender

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

guard (third-person singular simple present guards, present participle guarding, simple past and past participle guarded)

1. To protect from danger; to secure against surprise, attack, or injury; to keep in safety; to defend.
2. To keep watch over, in order to prevent escape or restrain from acts of violence, or the like.

   Guard the prisoner.

3. To watch by way of caution or defense; to be caution; to be in a state or position of defense or safety.

   Careful people guard against mistakes.

4. To protect the edge of, especially with an ornamental border; hence, to face or ornament with lists, laces, etc.
5. To fasten by binding; to gird.

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

Derived terms

• guard one's tongue

Translations

Further reading

• guard in Webster’s Revised Unabridged Dictionary, G. & C. Merriam, 1913.
• guard in The Century Dictionary, New York, N.Y.: The Century Co., 1911.
• guard at OneLook Dictionary Search

Anagrams

• Dagur, Darug, Dugar, Durga, draug, durag

English

Etymology

Agent noun from obsolete verb buff (“make a dull sound when struck”) (mid-16c.), from Old French buffe (“blow”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /?b?f?(?)/, [?b?f?(?)]
• (General American) IPA^(key): /?b?f?/
• (General Australian) IPA^(key): /?baf?(?)/, [?bäf?(?)]
• Rhymes: -?f?(r)

Noun

buffer (plural buffers)

1. Someone or something that buffs.
   1. A machine with rotary brushes, passed over a hard floor to clean it.
   2. A machine for polishing shoes and boots.
2. (chemistry) A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid.
3. (computing) A portion of memory set aside to store data, often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.
4. (mechanical) Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.
5. (telecommunications) A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.
6. (rail transport) A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
   • 1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, [1]

     The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer / To ride on a buffer / In Parliamentary trains.

   • 1953, C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair, Collins, 1998, Chapter 14,

     Then, with a shock like a thousand goods trains crashing into a thousand pairs of buffers, the lips of rock closed.

7. (rail transport) The metal barrier to help prevent trains from running off the end of the track.
8. An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
9. (politics, international relations) A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
10. (colloquial) A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
    • 1955, C. S. Lewis, The Magician's Nephew, Collins, 1998, Chapter 1,

      I can’t expect two youngsters like you to find it much fun talking to an old buffer like me.

11. (figuratively) A gap that isolates or separates two things.
12. (Britain, nautical, slang) The chief bosun's mate.
    • 2001, Mark Higgitt, Through Fire and Water (page 43)

      He decided to run for president of the POs' Mess against the Buffer, Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.

    • 2015, Peter Broadbent, A Singapore Fling: An AB's Far-Flung Adventure

      I happen to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when the Buffer arrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

buffer (third-person singular simple present buffers, present participle buffering, simple past and past participle buffered)

1. To use a buffer or buffers; to isolate or minimize the effects of one thing on another.
2. (computing) To store data in memory temporarily.
3. (chemistry) To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.

Translations

Adjective

buffer

1. comparative form of buff: more buff

Related terms

• bufferize
• buffer lass
• buffer up
• buffer zone

Anagrams

• rebuff

Danish

Etymology

From English buffer.

Noun

buffer c (singular definite bufferen, plural indefinite buffere)

1. (chemistry) buffer

Declension

Synonyms

• puffer

Further reading

• “buffer” in Den Danske Ordbog

Italian

Etymology

Borrowed from English buffer.

Noun

buffer m (invariable)

1. (computing) buffer

   Synonym: memoria tampone

Portuguese

Etymology

Borrowed from English buffer.

Pronunciation

• (Brazil) IPA^(key): /?b?.fe?/

Noun

buffer m (plural buffers)

1. (computing) buffer (memory for temporary storage)

Romansch

Alternative forms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan) buffar
• (Sutsilvan) bufar
• (Vallader) boffar

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Verb

buffer

1. (Puter) to blow

Synonyms

• (Rumantsch Grischun, Sursilvan) sufflar
• (Sutsilvan, Surmiran) zuflar
• (Puter) zufler
• (Vallader) sofflar

Spanish

Noun

buffer m (plural buffers)

1. (computing) buffer

Westrobothnian

Verb

buffer

1. Alternative form of bufför