different between puff vs zephyr

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /p?f/
• Rhymes: -?f

Etymology 1

From Middle English puff, puf, from Old English pyf (“a blast of wind, puff”), imitative. Cognate with Middle Low German puf, pof.

Noun

puff (countable and uncountable, plural puffs)

1. (countable) A sharp exhalation of a small amount of breath through the mouth.
2. (uncountable) The ability to breathe easily while exerting oneself.

   Synonym: wind

3. (countable) A small quantity of gas or smoke in the air.

4. (countable) A sudden but small gust of wind, smoke, etc.
   • 1674, Thomas Flatman, Poems and Songs

     to every puff of wind a slave
5. (informal, countable) An act of inhaling smoke from a cigarette, cigar or pipe.

   Synonym: drag

6. (uncountable, slang) The drug cannabis.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:marijuana

7. (countable) A flamboyant or alluring statement of praise.
   • 1931, Bernard Shaw, Our Theatre in the Nineties (volume 24, page 246)

     […] we critics were not his fellow-guests, but simply deadheads whose business it was to "dress the house" and write puffs.

8. A portion of fabric gathered up so as to be left full in the middle.

   a sleeve with a puff at the shoulder

9. (countable) A light cake filled with cream, cream cheese, etc.

   Synonyms: pastry, cream puff

10. A puffball.
    • 1598, John Florio, A Worlde of Wordes, or Most Copious, and Exact Dictionarie in Italian and English, London: Edward Blount, p. 47,^[1]

      Bozzacchio, an acorne. Also a puffe or mushrump full of dust.

11. A powder puff.
12. (dated, slang) A puffer, one who is employed by the owner or seller of goods sold at auction to bid up the price; an act or scam of that type.
    • 1842, "A Paper on Puffing", Ainsworth's Magazine

      Is nothing to be said in praise of the "Emporiums" and "Repositories" and "Divans," which formerly were mere insignificant tailors', toymen's, and tobacconists' shops? Is the transition from the barber's pole to the revolving bust of the perruquier, nothing? — the leap from the bare counter-traversed shop to the carpeted and mirrored saloon of trade, nothing? Are they not, one and all, practical puffs, intended to invest commerce with elegance, and to throw a halo round extravagance?

    • 1848, Mrs. White, "Puffs and Puffing", in Sharpe's London Magazine

      Here the duke is made the vehicle of the tailor's advertisement, and the prelusive compliments, ostensibly meant for his grace, merge into a covert recommendation of the coat. Several specimens might be given of this species of puff, which is to be met with in almost every paper, and is a favourite form with booksellers, professional men, &c.

    • 2008, David Paton-Williamspage, Katterfelto, page xii

      He was the eighteenth century king of spin, or, in the language of the day, the "prince of puff".

13. (genetics) A region of a chromosome exhibiting a local increase in diameter.
14. (slang, dated, Britain) Life.
    • 1938, P. G. Wodehouse, The Code of the Woosters

      Did you ever in your puff see such a perfect perisher?

15. (derogatory, slang, Britain, particularly northern UK) Synonym of poof: a male homosexual, especially an effeminate one.

Derived terms

Translations

Etymology 2

From Middle English puffen, from Old English pyffan (“to breathe out, blow with the mouth”). Compare Dutch puffen, German Low German puffen, German puffen, Danish puffe, Swedish puffa.

Verb

puff (third-person singular simple present puffs, present participle puffing, simple past and past participle puffed)

1. (intransitive) To emit smoke, gas, etc., in puffs.
2. (intransitive) To pant.
   • 1692, Roger L'Estrange, Fables of Aesop and Other Eminent Mythologists

     By and by comes the ass back again, Puffing and Blowing, from the Chase.

   • 1918, Edgar Rice Burroughs, The Land That Time Forgot Chapter VI

     Puffing and panting, we plodded on until within about a mile of the harbor we came upon a sight that brought us all up standing.

3. (transitive, archaic) To advertise.
4. To blow as an expression of scorn.

   • It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation.

5. To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.

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

6. To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance.
   • 1633, George Herbert, The Quip

     Then came brave Glory puffing by.

7. To drive with a puff, or with puffs.

   • The clearing north will puff the clouds away.

8. To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously.
   • 1685, John Dryden, The Twenty-Ninth Ode of the First Book of Horace

     I puff the prostitute away.

9. To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate.

   a bladder puffed with air
10. To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, etc.; often with up.
    • 1881, Benjamin Jowett, Thucydides Translated into English

      puffed up with military success

11. To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly.

Derived terms

• outpuff
• puffed
• puff up
• puff out

Translations

Finnish

Interjection

puff

1. poof (deflating object or a magical disappearance)

Hungarian

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): [?puf?]
• Hyphenation: puff
• Rhymes: -uf?

Etymology 1

From German puffen.

Noun

puff (plural puffok)

1. pouf, puff, pouffe (a backless, rounded, cushioned low stool)
2. (dressmaking) pouf (on the upper part of the sleeves)
3. puff, powder puff (a pad of soft material used for the application of cosmetic powder to the face)

Declension

Etymology 2

Back-formation from puffad, puffant, puffaszt.

Interjection

puff

1. bang! pouf! (onomatopoeia representing a sudden sharp noise or crashing sound)

References

Further reading

• (pouf, puff, pouffe): puff in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN
• (bang): puff in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh: A magyar nyelv értelmez? szótára (’The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: ?ISBN

English

Alternative forms

• zephir
• zefir

Etymology

From Latin zephyrus (“west wind”), from Ancient Greek ??????? (Zéphuros).

Pronunciation

• (UK) IPA^(key): /z?f?(?)/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /z?f?/
• Rhymes: -?f?(?)

Noun

zephyr (plural zephyrs)

1. A light wind from the west.

   Synonym: westerly

   • 1671, R. Bohun, A Discourse Concerning the Origine and Properties of Wind, Oxford: Tho. Bowman, pp. 149-150,^[1]

     The Western [winds] have been Counted the mildest, & most Auspicious of all others; and were so highly in favour with the Poets, that they thought them worthy of the Golden Age, and to refresh the Elysian groves. [...] But though the Breathing Zephyrs are so much celebrated in Poems and Romances, and happily were kinder to the delicious countries of Italy, & Greece, yet wee find no lesse malignity in their natures from particular accidents and climats, then what wee have observ’d of other Winds.

2. Any light refreshing wind; a gentle breeze.
3. Anything of fine, soft, or light quality, especially fabric.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

zephyr (third-person singular simple present zephyrs, present participle zephyring, simple past and past participle zephyred)

1. (intransitive, poetic) To blow or move like a zephyr, or light breeze.
   • 1879, Robert Stephen Hawker, “An Inscription for an Aged Oak” in The Poetical Works, London: The Bodley Head, p. 171,^[2]

     There was a time

     When the soft zephyring spring came joyfully,

     Like a young bride, with bloom upon her cheek—

   • 1908, Clarence E. Mulford, The Coming of Hopalong Cassidy, New York: Grosset & Dunlap, Chapter 4, p. 60,^[3]

     There was a sudden scrambling and thumping overhead and hot exclamations zephyred down to them.
2. (transitive, poetic) To blow or blow on gently like a zephyr; to cool or refresh with a gentle breeze.
   • 1849, letter from Leonidas Lent Hamline dated 15 December, 1849, in Walter Clark Palmer, Life and Letters of Leonidas L. Hamline, D.D., New York: Carlton & Porter, 1866, Chapter 15, p. 361,^[4]

     He was a fragrant poison, a zephyred pestilence spread through all the city.

   • 1914, Leonard Lanson Cline, untitled sonnet in Poems, Boston: The Poet Lore Company, p. 76,^[5]

     Ah, but the skies are joyous in the spring,

     From dawn to dusk exuberantly blue;

     White-tufted oftentimes with clouds that do

     But wanton in heaven’s zephyred merrying!

   • 1914, Juliane Paulsen (pseudonym of Juliane Grace Hansen), “Poppy Fantasy” in And Then Came Spring, Boston: The Gorham Press, p. 49,^[6]

     Oh, graciously she led my soul within

     Where ever and forever went a wind

     In zephyred streams of poppies coursing sweet

     About the place, and waves of poppy heat

     About us there.