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muff
From Wiktionary, the free dictionary
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See also: Muff
English
Pronunciation
- (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA(key): /mʌf/
- (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA(key): /mɐf/
Audio (General Australian): (file)
- (Northern England) IPA(key): /mʊf/
- Rhymes: -ʌf
Etymology 1
Probably from Dutch mof (“muff, mitten”).
Noun
muff (plural muffs)
- (historical) A piece of fur or cloth, usually with open ends, used for keeping the hands warm.
- 1907 August, Robert W[illiam] Chambers, chapter I, in The Younger Set, New York, N.Y.: D. Appleton & Company, →OCLC:
- Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
- (vulgar slang) The vulva or vagina; pubic hair around it.
- Synonyms: muffin; see also Thesaurus:vagina.
- (synecdochically, vulgar slang) A woman or girl.
- (glassblowing) A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.
- The feathers sticking out from both sides of the face under the beak of some birds.
- A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object such as a pipe.
Synonyms
Derived terms
Translations
a piece of fur or cloth for keeping the hands warm
|
pubic hair
a blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet
References
- “muff, n.1.”, in OED Online
, Oxford: Oxford University Press, launched 2000. - “muff”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
Etymology 2
Unknown; perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1, above; or perhaps related to Dutch muffen (“to dote”) and German muffen (“to sulk”).
Noun
muff (plural muffs)
- (colloquial) A fool, a stupid or poor-spirited person. [from 19th c.]
- 1860, William Makepeace Thackeray, Lovel the Widower:
- Can you fancy that such an old creature (an old muff, as you call him, you wicked, satirical man!) could ever make en impression on my heart?
- 1901, E. Nesbit, The Wouldbegoods:
- […]being good is so much like being a muff, generally.
- (slang, chiefly sports) An error, a mistake; a failure to hold a ball when once in the hands. [from 19th c.]
- A bird, the whitethroat.
Translations
Verb
muff (third-person singular simple present muffs, present participle muffing, simple past and past participle muffed)
- (sports) To drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly. [from 19th c.]
- To mishandle; to bungle. [from 1920s]
- 1953, C. S. Lewis, The Silver Chair:
- But then, supposing this was the real sign? … They had muffed three already; they daren’t muff the fourth.
- 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York: Review Books, published 2006, page 69:
- Here was the superlative opportunity to make a generous and lasting settlement from a position of strength; but the pieds noirs, like the Israelis, and from not altogether dissimilar motives, were to muff it.
Derived terms
Translations
in American football, to drop or mishandle the ball
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Etymology 3
Shortening.
Noun
muff (plural muffs)
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German
Pronunciation
Verb
muff
Hungarian
Etymology
From German Muff, from Dutch mof ("muff"), from Middle Dutch moffel, from Middle French moufle ("mitten"), from Medieval Latin muffula ("fur-lined glove"), of unknown origin.
Pronunciation
Noun
muff (plural muffok)
Declension
Further reading
- muff in Géza Bárczi, László Országh, et al., editors, A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN.
Swedish
Etymology
From German Muffe, a Low German subform of Muff.
Noun
muff c
- a muff (for keeping hands warm)
- a sleeve ((tubular) covering or lining, e.g. for connecting pipes)
- (slang) muff (female pubic hair, female genitalia)
Declension
Derived terms
- rattmuff (“steering wheel cover made of fabric”)
References
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