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Scottish National Dictionary (1700–)

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First published 1968 (SND Vol. VII). Includes material from the 2005 supplement.
This entry has not been updated since then but may contain minor corrections and revisions.

PLUFF, adv., n., v. Also plaff; pyuff; pluiff (Watson); plugh- (Jam.). Cf. Bluff.

I. adv. With a puff, whoof! (Sh., Abd., Ags. 1966).Sc. 1860 W. Russell India I. 253:
As I spoke, pluff came a spirt of smoke with red tongue in it.Kcb. 1898 Crockett Standard Bearer xvii.:
Plaff! ye gang up like a waft o' tow thrown in the fire.

II. n. 1. A mild explosion, whiff or puff of air, smoke, gunpowder or the like (Sc. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Sh., ne.Sc., Kcb. 1966); an act of shooting, a shot. Also fig. Comb. pluff-grass, pyuff-girse, the creeping or meadow soft-grass, Holcus mollis or lanatus (Mry. 1839 G. Gordon Flora Mry. 4; Bnff. 1866 Gregor D. Bnff. 131; Abd. 1930 Buchan Observer (18 Dec.), pyuff-), from the lightness and fluffiness of its seeds. Phr. to play pluff, to go off with a puff, to explode.Fif. 1814 W. Tennant Trottin' Nanny ix.:
Set her auld saul in a flame Like pluff o' pouther.Ayr. 1822 Galt Steamboat xii.:
A bit pluff with the [hair-powder] box there on the left curls.Sc. 1827 Wilson Noctes Amb. (1863) I. 328:
There was an ill smell in the room, as frae a pluff o' sulphur.wm.Sc. 1827 T. Hamilton Cyril Thornton (1848) vi.:
He surely canna ha'e . . . gane aff in a pluff like puir Doctor M'Corkadale.Slk. 1829 Quarterly Jnl. Agric. I. 641:
To get a pluff at the cusha doos.Kcd. 1844 W. Jamie Muse 99:
I used to hae them for the rooks, And took a pluff amang the stooks.Ags. 1858 People's Jnl. (27 Feb.) 2:
The poother played pluff, an' . . . set fire to the flowers o' lint that were stickin' a' ower the wheel.Kcb. 1895 Crockett Moss-Hags xlvii.:
We could see the soldiers running their horses and firing off white pluffs of powder.Ags. 1934 G. Martin Dundee Worthies 119:
[He] wad gar curious mixtures fizzle an' gae aff wi' great pluffs.Abd. 1950 Buchan Observer (6 June):
Pluff grass is remarkable for the rapidity with which it shoots up.

2. Hence applied to anything of a dry, soft, crumbly or spongy texture which disintegrates easily into dust, specif. a rotten mushroom (Sc. 1825 Jam.), a pear or the like which looks edible but is rotten inside (Rxb. 1825 Jam.); a seed-pod with a cluster of small woolly seeds like that of a dandelion (Sh. 1966). Combs. pea-pluff, pea-flour, peasemeal, s.v. Pease; pluff-up, = 8. (Ags. 1900).

3. A firework, squib; in pl., a game played with a type of home-made cracker of clay but without a powder filling, in which the explosion was caused by the sudden escape of compressed air, see 1930 quot.Peb. 1884 J. Grosart Poems 65:
Hoo the Deil hotched and leuch, syne flew off like a pluff.Edb. 1844 J. Ballantine Gaberlunzie x.:
On King's birthdays thy squibs and pluffs, Slapp'd in the face o' drucken scuffs.Rnf. 1930 A. M. Stewart Stickleback Club 322:
Game of Pluffs. It's sixty years since the writer sat in that circle and played the game. Suppose we make one more pluff. Our model was the twopenny pie, with this difference that the sides were thicker, about 1 inch high and ¼ inch thick, while the bottom was thinned down to the thickness of a penny-piece. Of lid it had none, the top of the rim was made smooth and even. The pluff was now laid flatly in the palm of the right hand. All round the rim was moistened with a spittle to ensure a proper contact with the flag-stone. Then up went the right hand. Turning swiftly over, you banged the pluff down with its face to the pavement. There followed a loud report. The sides had flattened out and thus the compressed air had blown the bottom completely away.

4. A tube through which air is blown, used as a pea-shooter, comb. pluff-gun, id. (Sh. 1966), or as a simple form of bellows (s.Sc. 1825 Jam.), see quot.Sc. 1695 A Summers Divertisement 15:
It has ten Barrels open at both ends like a Pluff.Dmf. 1822 Scots Mag. (July) 43:
[She] sat wi' her pluff on the hemlock knowe.Dmf. 1830 W. Bennet Traits Sc. Life II. 288:
Pluff. A long wooden tube like a gun barrel . . . used for blowing new life into the fire.Kcd. 1853 W. Jamie Emigrant's Family 48:
Pluff-guns and pouther there was in't.

5. “The instrument used for throwing out hair-powder” (Sc. 1825 Jam.), a powder-puff (‡Ork. 1966).Fif. 1714 W. C. Dickinson Two Students (1952) 88:
For a pluff to their pouder . . . 0 1s. 0d.Ork. 1720 P. Ork. A.S. (1928) VI. 29:
An pouder pluff & pen knyfe an ink horne an stick of black wax.Ayr. 1790 A. Tait Poems 108:
We've ruffs, pluffs, muffs and maidenheads.Sc. 1816 Scott Antiquary xxxvi.:
A veshel that rins ashore wi' us flees asunder like the powther when I shake the pluff.

6. A piece of padding or stuffing, esp. that used in a garment, a pad (Abd.¹³1910; Kcb. 1966), a rag-stuffed ball. Hence pluffy, adj., freq. of living things: having a “well-padded” appearance, plump, chubby, “puffy”, fleshy (Sc. 1808 Jam.). Gen.Sc., also in Eng. dial. Used jocularly in nonce comb. pluff-a-tootie, a thick wedge of bread and jam suitable for hungry boys, see 1959 quot.Sc. 1732 Chrons. Atholl & Tullibardine Families II. 388:
I want something to be pluffs to my britches.Ags. 1824 J. Bowick Characters 28:
He likes the “pluffy fowls”.Slk. 1828 Blackwood's Mag. (Oct.) 489:
A big, dun-faced, pluffy body.Abd. 1847 Gill Binklets 28:
The square hole in the pluff of his breeches was an eye-sore.Gsw. 1870 G. Henderson Recollections (1914) 31:
We played rounders with an improvised bat, our balls being cheap, stuffed with rags, and not over round. We called them “pluffs”.Ags. 1881 J. S. Neish Byways 49:
He like the “pluffy” or fat ones best, and as he became notorious for hunting about on market days among the country folk for pluffy hens.Rxb. 1924 Kelso Chron. (19 Sept.) 2:
A big stout elderly gent, with pluffy cheeks and rubicund nose.Sh. 1959 J. Eunson Pioneer 15:
He made jam sandwiches, “good and thick” for the boys, for 1d. each. These sandwiches he called “pluff-a-tooties”.

7. A small quantity, a pinch (of powder, dust, or the like) (Sh. 1966).Edb. 1828 D. M. Moir Mansie Wauch xvi.:
Deil a hait was in the one pistol but a pluff of powder.Kcb. 1898 Crockett Standard-Bearer xxxiv.:
A wee pluff o' ash, that I shall hold like snuff between my fingers and thumb.

8. In dim. form pluffy, -ie, (1) a type of toffee containing bicarbonate of soda which gives it a fluffy, brittle consistency, “puff candy” (Ags., Slk. 1966). Cf. 2.Ags. 1948 Forfar Dispatch (30 Dec.):
Buy yer pluffy far ye buy the lave o' yer toffee, says Bel as hoity-toity as ye like.

(2) a familiar or nick-name for the porpoise, Delphinus delphus, from the puffing or snorting of the animal's blow-hole (Bnff. 1966). Cf. puffy(-dunter), id., s.v. Puff, II.Bnff. 1930:
A pluffie raise on wir lee boo, an' syne geed doon again wi a sudden walloch.

9. In pl., the lungs (Ayr. 1923 Wilson D. Burns 179).

10. Nonsense, “stuff” (Ayr. 1910).

III. v. 1. tr. (1) To discharge (smoke, breath, air, etc.) with a small explosion, to puff (something) out in a cloud; with oot, to extinguish something by puffing air on it (Sc. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Sh., Abd., Rxb., Uls. 1966); absol. to fire a gun, blaze away, let fly. Vbl.n. pluffing, -en, firing, shooting; in pl., the refuse of corn, husks, chaff (Slk. 1825 Jam.; Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Slk. 1966). Deriv. pluffer, n., a person who shoots a gun, gen. in scornful or derogatory sense, a “pepperer” (Watson); a pea-shooter (Watson; Sh., ne.Sc., Uls. 1966). Cf. II. 4.Sc. 1745 Caled. Mercury (7 Oct.):
The Garrison of the Castle continued pluffing from behind their Intrenchment all yesterday.Slk. 1822 Hogg Perils of Man II. 33:
He's as weel aff down wi' the auld miller; he'll get some pluffins o' seeds or dust.Sc. 1826 Blackwood's Mag. (March) 249:
He . . . went pluffing disconsolately among the hills.Sc. 1828 Ib. (Sept.) 278:
Is that the pluffer at partridge-pouts who had nearly been the death of Ponto?Dmb. 1844 W. Cross Disruption xxiv.:
This gallantin' o' the Queen amang us, this pluffin' o' poother, this bleezin' o' gas, this ringin' o' bells and the firin' o' cannon.Abd. 1867 W. Anderson Rhymes 31:
Chasing the leeries wi' pluffers an' pease .Uls. 1880 Patterson Gl.:
Children make “pluffers” to “pluff” hawstones through.Sc. 1887 Jam. s.v. Bluff:
About the end of autumn schoolboys often amuse themselves by bluffing hawstones at each other by means of a small tin tube, called a bluffer, or blugher, pluffer or plugher. In country districts the tube is made from a stalk of the cow-parsnip or water-dropwart.Lnk. 1899 W. Wingate Poems (1919) 57:
The openin' psaum maist dee'd in a dwaum, Pluft oot like an ill-blawn fire.Abd. 1960 Press & Jnl. (5 June):
The only place I had ever seen them before was at the Timmer Market, where they used to be sold along with pluffers.Abd. 1993:
E made a pluffer oot o boortree tae pluff pizzers. Abd. 1996 Press and Journal 19 Aug :
However, the word pea-shooter was comparatively unknown; peas being strictly for use in the kitchen or for sowing in the garden in spring.
The shooter was called a pluffer and consisted of the piston from a discarded cycle pump with the business end sawn off.

(2) to puff out, to give a puffy appearance to, to “fluff out” (Sh., Abd. 1966).Lnk. 1818 A. Fordyce Country Wedding 62:
Wi' her Wellington boots, an' plu ff'd bonnet sae bra'.Peb. 1838 W. Welsh Peb. Cotter 34:
But dandie Kate was far fra neat, Wi' ribbands pluff'd an' waivelt.

2. intr. (1) To become inflated, swell up, puff or fluff out (Sh., ne.Sc., m.Lth., Slk. 1966); of cakes, bread, etc.: to become aerated, to rise in baking (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.).Rxb. 1925 E. C. Smith Mang Howes 19:
I simmer, whan the smuists are woarst an the pluiffin ter froes up atween the causastanes.

(2) to explode, go up in a puff of smoke (Rxb. 1923 Watson W.-B.; Sh., ne.Sc. 1966).

(3) of living creatures: to pant, puff, blow (Lth. 1825 Jam.), to draw long breaths.Sc. 1853 J. W. Carlyle Letters (Froude 1883) II. 227:
And slept a fine natural “pluffing” sleep till one in the morning.