Pronunciations (4)
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/hʌf/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
- Received-Pronunciation
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/hɐf/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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/hʊf/
Pronunciation notes
- Northern-England
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hʌf
Noun
A heavy breath; a grunt or sigh.
- Examples
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With a huff, he lifted the box onto the back of the truck.
A condition of anger, annoyance, disgust, etc.
Usage- Figurative
- Examples
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in a huff
More examples (2)
Such wickedness had never come into his head; but he had a certain pleasure in being the confidential friend of a very pretty woman; and when he heard that that pretty woman's husband was jealous, the pleasure was enhanced rather than otherwise. On that Sunday, as he had left the house in Curzon Street, he had told Stanbury that Trevelyan [the husband] had just gone off in a huff, which was true enough, and he had walked from thence down Clarges Street, and across Piccadilly to St. James's Street, with a jauntier step than usual, because he was aware that he himself had been the occasion of that trouble.
Tom Bower’s 2024 book, The House of Beckham, painted a rather snide portrait of the marriage, in which Beckham is constantly surrounded by lovelies, and Victoria is in a constant huff about it.
One swelled with a false sense of importance or value; a boaster.
Usage- Obsolete
- Examples
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Lewd, shallow-brained huffs make atheism and contempt of religion the sole badge [...] of wit.
The act of removing an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).
Verb
To breathe heavily.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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The run left him huffing and puffing.
To say in a huffy manner.
Usage- Intransitive
To enlarge; to swell up.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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Bread huffs.
To bluster or swell with anger, arrogance, or pride; to storm; to take offense.
Usage- Intransitive
- Examples
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This senseless arrogant conceit of theirs made them huff at the doctrine of repentance.
More examples (1)
After all, she huffed, Emily (played by Lily Collins) has been living in the French capital for about a year and had a Champagne brand as her client at the fictional luxury marketing firm, Savoir, where she worked.
To treat with arrogance and insolence; to chide or rebuke rudely; to bully, to hector.
Usage- Transitive
- Examples
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[…] I was ſent for by the marſhall, huffed and hectored ſtrangely, thretned, &c., in fine, muſte give bonds to the good behaviour; I refuſed, […]
You must not think to huff us.
More examples (1)
Yet didn't you ſee, yet didn't you ſee, What naughty tricks they put upon me: They broke my pitcher, And ſpilt the water, And huff'd my mother, And chid her daughter, And kiſs'd my ſiſter inſtead of me.
To vex; to offend.
Usage- Archaic
- Transitive
- Examples
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More examples (1)
Signior Riccabocca had become very intimate, as we have seen, at the Parsonage. But not so at the Hall. For though the Squire was inclined to be very friendly to all his neighbours he was, like most country gentlemen, rather easily huffed.
To inhale psychoactive inhalants.
Usage- Transitive
To remove an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).
Usage- Transitive
Noun
a state of irritation or annoyance
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
Verb
inhale recreational drugs
- Synonyms
- Broader terms
- Examples
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The addict was snorting cocaine almost every day
the kids were huffing glue
blow hard and loudly
- Broader terms
- Examples
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he huffed and puffed as he made his way up the mountain