A Dictionary of the Older Scottish Tongue (up to 1700)
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First published 1986 (DOST Vol. VI).
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.
Quotation dates: 1513-1613, 1666-1667
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Puff(e, Puft(e, n. Also: pwff; pouffe. [ME puf (Ancr. R.), puft(e (Trevisa), late ME pouf (1419), late ME and e.m.e puff(e: cf. OE pyf(f), *puf, LG pof, puf, and Puff(e v.] A puff. a. A small exhalation (of breath). b. A puff of wind. c. An emission of wind from the body.a. 1513 Doug. iv xii 122.
With a puft of aynd, the lyfe furthwent 1562-3 Winȝet II 10/8.
Sa douchty, that with a puft [pr. puff] of his mouth he micht be iudgeit to cleik fra the counselis … al auctoritie a1568 Bannatyne MS I p. 54.
Quhat are we bot a puff of braith? ?1613 W. Alexander Doomes-day iii 395 (G, H).
[So to prolong their little] pufts [J. puffes] [of breath]b. 1513 Doug. x ii 58.
To … set in sted of that man … Owder a clowd or a waist puft of wynd c1590 Fowler I 125/189.
Confused dreames, and pufts of winde, vane fables [etc.] 1590 Lett. Jas. VI to Bruce 282.
In deadest calmes ye knau suddaine and perellous puftes and quhirluindes will aryse 1666-7 Blakhall Narr. 156.
Our shippe … with all her sailles full of wind, which … should … have dryven her under the surgeing waves, and brocken her at the very first pouffec. 1540 Lynd. Sat. 2138 (B).
At ilk a pant scho lattis a pwff [Ch. puffe] And hes no ho behind
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"Puff n.". Dictionary of the Scots Language. 2004. Scottish Language Dictionaries Ltd. Accessed 15 Dec 2025 <http://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/dost/puffe_n>
