buff

• POS: Noun, Verb (usu participle), Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

buff, n. [OE. buff, buffe, buff, buffalo, F. buffle buffalo. See Buffalo.].

•  A sort of leather, prepared from the skin of the buffalo, dressed with oil, like chamois; also, the skins of oxen, elks, and other animals, dressed in like manner.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  The color of buff; a light yellow, shading toward pink, gray, or brown.  [1913 Webster]

  "A visage rough,
  Deformed, unfeatured, and a skin of buff."  [1913 Webster]
•  A military coat, made of buff leather.  Shak.  [1913 Webster]
•  The grayish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat. See Buffy coat, under Buffy, a.  [1913 Webster]
•  A wheel covered with buff leather, and used in polishing cutlery, spoons, etc.  [1913 Webster]
•  The bare skin; as, to strip to the buff.  [1913 Webster]

  "To be in buff is equivalent to being naked."  [1913 Webster]

buff, a. 

•  Made of buff leather.  Goldsmith.  [1913 Webster]
•  Of the color of buff.  [1913 Webster]

Buff coat, a close, military outer garment, with short sleeves, and laced tightly over the chest, made of buffalo skin, or other thick and elastic material, worn by soldiers in the 17th century as a defensive covering. -- Buff jerkin, originally, a leather waistcoat; afterward, one of cloth of a buff color. [Obs.] Nares. -- Buff stick (Mech.), a strip of wood covered with buff leather, used in polishing.

buff, v. t. 

 to polish with a soft cloth, especially one similar to a buff{5}. See Buff, n., 5.  [1913 Webster]

buff, v. t. [OF. bufer to cuff, buffet. See Buffet a blow.].

 To strike.  B. Jonson.  [1913 Webster]

buff, n. [See Buffet.].

 A buffet; a blow; -- obsolete except in the phrase “Blindman's buff.” See blindman's buff.  [1913 Webster]
"Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent
That made him reel."  [1913 Webster]

buff, a. [Of uncertain etymol.].

 Firm; sturdy.  [1913 Webster]
"And for the good old cause stood buff,
'Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff."  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

buff, adj., n., & v.
--adj. of a yellowish beige colour (buff envelope).
--n.
1 a yellowish beige colour.
2 colloq. an enthusiast, esp. for a particular hobby (railway buff).
3 colloq. the human skin unclothed.
4 a a velvety dull-yellow ox-leather. b (attrib.) (of a garment etc.) made of this (buff gloves).
5 (the Buffs) the former East Kent Regiment (from the colour of its uniform facings).
--v.tr.
1 polish (metal, fingernails, etc.).
2 make (leather) velvety like buff, by removing the surface.

Idiom

buff-stick a stick covered with buff and used for polishing. in the buff colloq. naked.

Etymology

orig. sense 'buffalo', prob. f. F buffle; sense 2 of n. orig. f. buff uniforms formerly worn by New York volunteer firemen, applied to enthusiastic fire-watchers

THESAURUS

buff

Leatherette, Leatheroid, Maecenas, abettor, adherent, admirer, advocate, aficionado, amateur, angel, apologist, appendage, applauder, appreciator, attendant, attender, audience, aureate, auric, authority, backer, bareness, beige, birthday suit, booster, buff-yellow, bug, burnish, canary, canary-yellow, cavaliere servente, champion, citron, citron-yellow, claqueur, coat, collector, commender, connoisseur, courtier, crank, cream, creamy, critic, cuticle, dangler, decollete, defender, dependence, dependent, dermis, devotee, dilettante, disciple, dress, ecdysiast, ecru, encomiast, encourager, endorser, energumen, enthusiast, eulogist, eulogizer, expert, exponent, extoller, fallow, fan, fanatic, fanatico, fancier, favorer, fell, finish, flaxen, fleece, flesh, flunky, follower, following, freak, frequenter, friend at court, fur, furbish, furring, gilded, gilt, glance, glaze, gloss, gold, gold-colored, golden, groupie, gymnosophist, gymnosophy, habitue, hanger-on, haunter, henchman, hide, homme de cour, hound, idolater, idolizer, imitation fur, imitation leather, infatuate, integument, jacket, lauder, leather, leather paper, leathern, leathery, lemon, lemon-yellow, lover, lunatic fringe, luster, luteolous, lutescent, mainstay, maintainer, monomaniac, nakedness, naturism, naturist, not a stitch, nudism, nudist, nudity, nut, ocherish, ocherous, ochery, ochreous, ochroid, ochrous, ochry, or, outer layer, outer skin, panegyrist, paranymph, parasite, partisan, patron, pelt, peltry, plugger, polish, praiser, primrose, primrose-colored, primrose-yellow, promoter, protagonist, public, puffer, pundit, pursuer, pursuivant, rawhide, reliance, rind, rooter, rub, rub up, saffron, saffron-colored, saffron-yellow, sallow, sand, sand-colored, sandblast, sandpaper, sandy, satellite, savant, scholar, scour, second, seconder, sectary, shadow, sheath, shine, sider, skin, skins, sleek, slick, slick down, smooth, specialist, spectator, sponsor, stalwart, standby, state of nature, stooge, straw, straw-colored, stripper, stripteaser, successor, support, supporter, sustainer, sympathizer, tagtail, tail, technical expert, technician, tegument, the altogether, the nude, the raw, theatergoer, toplessness, tout, touter, trainbearer, upholder, vair, varnish, visitor, votary, ward heeler, wax, well-wisher, worshiper, xanthic, xanthous, yellow, yellowish, zealot