PUFFING • DICCIONARIO INGLES.COM • Definition of Puffing

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/pˈəfɪŋ/ Listen

noun

Puffing n. A. & n. from Puff, v. i. & t.

Puffing adder. (Zool.) Same as Puff adder (b), under Puff.

Puffing pig (Zool.), the common porpoise.

verb

Puff v. t.

1.

To drive with a puff, or with puffs. "The clearing north will puff the clouds away."

2.

To repel with words; to blow at contemptuously. "I puff the prostitute away."

3.

To cause to swell or dilate; to inflate; to ruffle with puffs; often with up; as, a bladder puffed with air. "The sea puffed up with winds."

4.

To inflate with pride, flattery, self-esteem, or the like; often with up. "Puffed up with military success."

5.

To praise with exaggeration; to flatter; to call public attention to by praises; to praise unduly. " Puffed with wonderful skill."

Puff v. i. (past & past part. puffed; pres. part. puffing)

1.

To blow in puffs, or with short and sudden whiffs.

2.

To blow, as an expression of scorn; with at. "It is really to defy Heaven to puff at damnation."

3.

To breathe quick and hard, or with puffs, as after violent exertion. "The ass comes back again, puffing and blowing, from the chase."

4.

To swell with air; to be dilated or inflated.

5.

To breathe in a swelling, inflated, or pompous manner; hence, to assume importance. "Then came brave Glory puffing by."

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Etymology of 'Puffing'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Puffing" Quotes from Famous Books

... curve, some monster swept out of the low hills on the right, with a shriek that startled the boy almost into terror and, with a mighty puffing and rumbling, shot out of sight again. The school-master shouted to Chad, and the Turner brothers ...

— The Little Shepherd of Kingdom Come • John Fox

... of Gall is the practice now coming into vogue with certain society ladies of encouraging newspapers to puff their charms—even paying them so much a line for fulsome praise. Not a few metropolitan papers reap a handsome profit by puffing society buds whom their fond parents are eager to place on the matrimonial market, hoping that they will "make good matches"; in other words, that they will marry money— its possessors being thrown in as pelon. Even married women, who are long on shekels but short on sense, sometimes pay ...

— Volume 12 of Brann The Iconoclast • William Cowper Brann

... directs the reading. She opens a book and reads aloud while I take my ease, looking at the pastel portrait which hangs just opposite the window. On the glass which entombs the picture I see the gently moving and puffing reflection of the fidgety window curtains, and the face of that glazed portrait becomes blurred with broken streaks and all kinds of ...

— Light • Henri Barbusse

... which I sat; and as there were several holes about the root I was at a loss to know in which the nest was built, and began to strike the root with a stick, expecting her to fly out, but nothing appeared. I then examined the holes one by one, and whilst doing so heard her hissing and puffing from within, in such a way that if I had not known she was there I should have thought it was a snake rather than a bird. However, as she would not come out, and the hole was so small that I could not get my hand in, I was obliged to raise the siege until next morning, ...

— Essays in Natural History and Agriculture • Thomas Garnett

... sunny day in August, 1878, there descended from the train that came puffing up to the commodious station at South Norwalk, an old man, apparently a German, accompanied by a much younger one, evidently of the same nationality. The old gentleman was not prepossessing in appearance, ...

— Bucholz and the Detectives • Allan Pinkerton

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