muff

English

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muff

Wikipedia

Pronunciation

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /mʌf/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌf

Etymology 1

Probably from Dutch mof (“muff, mitten”).

Noun

muff (plural muffs)

1. (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.

2. (vulgar, slang) Female pubic hair; female genitals (vulva, vagina), like muffin. See Thesaurus:vagina.
3. (by extension, vulgar, slang) A woman or girl.
4. (glassblowing) A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.
5. The feathers sticking out from both sides of the face under the beak of some birds.
6. A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object such as a pipe.

Synonyms

• whiskers, beard, muff and beard (bird feathers):

Derived terms

Translations

References

• “muff, n.1.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: 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)

1. (colloquial) A fool, a stupid or poor-spirited person.
   • 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?

2. (slang, chiefly sports) An error, a mistake; a failure to hold a ball when once in the hands.
3. A bird, the whitethroat.

Translations

Verb

muff (third-person singular simple present muffs, present participle muffing, simple past and past participle muffed)

1. (sports) To drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly.
2. To mishandle; to bungle.
   • 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.

Translations

Etymology 3

Shortening.

Noun

muff (plural muffs)

1. (slang) A muffin.
   • 2010, Lindsay G. Arthur, The Litigators, page 63:

     Skinny lattes and a couple of blueberry muffs.

German

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key):

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

muff

1. singular imperative of muffen
2. (colloquial) first-person singular present of muffen

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

• IPA^(key):
• Hyphenation: muff
• Rhymes: -ufː

Noun

muff (plural muffok)

1. (archaic) muff (handwarmer)
2. (slang) vagina
3. (slang) woman

Declension

Further reading

• muff in Bárczi, Géza and László Országh. A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára (‘The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language’, abbr.: ÉrtSz.). Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962. Fifth ed., 1992: →ISBN

Swedish

Etymology

From German Muffe, a Low German subform of Muff.

Noun

muff c

1. a muff (for keeping hands warm)
2. a sleeve ((tubular) covering or lining, e.g. for connecting pipes)
3. (slang) muff (female pubic hair, female genitalia)

Declension

Derived terms

• rattmuff (“steering wheel cover made of fabric”)

References

• muff in Svensk ordbok (SO)
• muff in Svenska Akademiens ordlista (SAOL)
• Fula Ordboken