Buff

Part of speech: noun (n.)

1. 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. "A suit of buff." Shak.

2. The color to buff; a light yellow, shading toward pink, gray, or brown. A visage rough, Deformed, unfeatured, and a skin of buff. Dryden.

3. A military coat, made of buff leather. Shak.

4. The grayish viscid substance constituting the buffy coat. See Buffy coat, under Buffy, a.

5. A wheel covered with buff leather, and used in polishing cutlery, spoons, etc.

6. The bare skin; as, to strip to the buff. [Colloq.] To be in buff is equivalent to being naked. Wright.

Part of speech: noun (n.)

A buffet; a blow; -- obsolete except in the phrase "Blindman's buff." Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent That made him reel. Spenser.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To polish with a buff. See Buff, n., 5.

Part of speech: verb (v.)

To strike. [Obs.] B. Jonson.

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

1. Made of buff leather. Goldsmith.

2. Of the color of buff. 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.

Part of speech: adjective (a.)

Firm; sturdy. And for the good old cause stood buff, 'Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff. Hudibras.