Muff

Pronunciation

• UK IPA: /mÊŒf/
• Rhymes: -ÊŒf

Probably from Dutch mof ("muff, mitten").

Full definition of muff

Noun

1. (historical) A piece of fur or cloth, usually with open ends, used for keeping the hands warm.
• 1907, w, The Younger Set Chapter 1/2, Selwyn …, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around...to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure...and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff.
2. (slang) Female pubic hair; the vulva.
3. (glassblowing) A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.
4. The feathers sticking out from both sides of the face under the beak of some birds.
5. A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object such as a pipe.

Synonyms

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

Related terms

• muff-diver
• muff-diving
• muff pistol

Origin unknown; perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1, above.

Noun

1. (colloquial) A fool, a stupid or poor-spirited person. from 19th c.
• Thackeraya muff of a curate
2. (slang, chiefly sports) An error, a mistake; a failure to hold a ball when once in the hands. from 19th c.
3. A bird, the whitethroat.

Verb

1. (sport) To drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly. from 19th c.
2. To mishandle; to bungle. from 1920s
• 1977, Alistair Horne, A Savage War of Peace, New York Review Books 2006, p. 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.

Shortening.

Noun

1. (slang) A muffin.----