guff

English

Etymology

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

Pronunciation

• enPR: gŭf, IPA^(key): /ɡʌf/

• Audio (General Australian):

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌf

Noun

guff (countable and uncountable, plural guffs)

1. (informal, uncountable) Nonsensical talk or thinking.
   • 1913, Robert Barr, chapter 4, in Lord Stranleigh Abroad‎^[1]:

     “… That woman is stark mad, Lord Stranleigh. […] If she had her way, she’d ruin the company inside a year with her hare-brained schemes ; love of the people, and that sort of guff.”

2. (informal, uncountable) Superfluous information.
3. (informal, uncountable) Insolent or otherwise unacceptable remarks.
   • 2019 May 8, Jemaine Clement, “The Trial” (2:53 from the start), in What We Do in the Shadows‎^[2], season 1, episode 7, spoken by Colin Robinson (Mark Proksch):

     “Oh, my God. Did-did you guys kill him?” “No! No one murdered him” “No! What... He was just...” “We found him in there.” “(laughs) I'm just giving you guff. And, uh, just so you know, I am feeding on you guys right now.”

4. (slang, countable) A fart; act of breaking wind.
5. (slang, countable) A bad smell. (Can we verify⁽⁺⁾ this sense?)

Synonyms

• (nonsensical talk or thinking): balls, bull, bulldust, bullshit, crap, nonsense, rubbish, tripe
• (insolent or otherwise unacceptable remarks): brass neck, cheek, impudence, insolence, lip

Translations

nonsensical talk or thinking

• Bulgarian: глупости (bg) f pl (gluposti)
• Dutch: zever (nl) m, nonsens (nl) m
• French: foutaises (fr) f pl
• German: Quatsch (de) m, Stuss (de) m, Nonsens (de) m, Schmarren (de) m (Southern Germany), Quark (de) m, Käse (de) m, Kappes (de) m (Rhineland), Unsinn (de) m, Blödsinn (de) m, Stuss (de) m, Mumpitz (de) m
• Spanish: paparruchas (es) f pl, chorradas f pl, pendejadas (es) f pl, tontería (es), boludez (es) f (Argentina), bobada (es) f (Spain), huevada (es) f (Chile)

insolent or otherwise unacceptable remarks

• Dutch: pesterij (nl) f, steek (nl) m

Verb

guff (third-person singular simple present guffs, present participle guffing, simple past and past participle guffed)

1. (slang) To fart.
2. (slang) To mislead.
   • 1955 October, Rex Stout, “The Next Witness”, in Three Witnesses, Bantam, published 1994, →ISBN, page 14:

     "Let me see if I get you. You can't bear to help convict Ashe of murder because you doubt if he's guilty, so you're scooting. Right?"
     […] "That's close enough," Wolfe said.
     "Not close enough for me. If you expect me to […] invite a stiff fine for running out on a subpoena […] , don't try to guff me. Say we doubt if Ashe is guilty, but we think he may get tagged because we know Mandelbaum wouldn't go to trial without a good case. Say also our bank account needs a shot in the arm, which is true. So we decide to see if we can […] "

Synonyms

• (break wind): See also Thesaurus:flatulate
• (mislead): To bullshit

Derived terms

• guffer
• guff off

Translations

break wind

• Bulgarian: пърдя (bg) (pǎrdja)
• Dutch: protten, scheten (nl) laten (nl), winden (nl) laten (nl)
• German: pupen (de), pupsen (de), furzen (de)