Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
Definition: Fluff |
FluffNoun1. Any light downy material. 2. Something of little value or significance. 3. A blunder (especially an actor's forgetting the lines). Verb1. Make a mess of, destroy or ruin. 2. Erect or fluff up; "the bird ruffled its feathers". 3. Ruffle by combing towards the ends towards the scalp, for a full effect; of hair. Source: WordNet 1.7.1 Copyright © 2001 by Princeton University. All rights reserved. |
Date "fluff" was first used: 1790. (references) |
(From Wikipedia, the free Encyclopedia)
This page has been listed on Wikipedia:Votes for deletion, where you can discuss whether this page should be deleted."Fluff" is a descriptor for something soft such as 'bellybutton fluff' (the small balls of loose clothing material found in human navels) and "plush" stuffed animals.
The term fluff is also used to describe information, articles, or news items containing little or no real content and usually implies disdain for the idea, person, or thing.
Source: adapted by the editor from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia under a copyleft GNU Free Documentation License (GFDL) from the article "Fluff."
Synonyms: FluffSynonyms: bagatelle (n), frippery (n), frivolity (n), ball up (v), blow (v), bobble (v), bollix (v), bollix up (v), bollocks (v), bollocks up (v), botch (v), botch up (v), bumble (v), bungle (v), flub (v), foul up (v), fuck up (v), fumble (v), louse up (v), mess up (v), mishandle (v), muck up (v), muff (v), ruffle (v), screw up (v), spoil (v), tease (v). (additional references) |
| Context | Synonyms within Context (source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus). |
Roughness | Wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down; byssus, moss, bur; fluff. |
| Source: adapted from Roget's Thesaurus. | |
Crosswords: Fluff |
| English words defined with "fluff": ruffle. (references) |
| Specialty definitions using "fluff": bale-breaker operator, BATTING-MACHINE OPERATOR, breaker operator, BRUSHER, MACHINE ♦ carpet cleaner ♦ FUR CLEANER, fur dry-cleaner, FUR GLAZER, fur glosser ♦ HAIR-SPINNING-MACHINE OPERATOR ♦ Incontinence Pads ♦ LAUNDRY-MACHINE TENDER, LEATHER CLEANER ♦ OPENER TENDER, opening-machine tender ♦ PICKER TENDER ♦ ROPE-SILICA-MACHINE OPERATOR, RUG CLEANER, HAND, rug renovator, rug scrubber, rug shampooer, rug washer ♦ sawdust-machine operator, SILK SPREADER, spreading-machine operator, stock blender, STRIKE-OUT-MACHINE OPERATOR ♦ tiger-machine operator. (references) |
| Non-English Usage: "Fluff" is also a word in the following language with the English translation in parentheses. Portuguese (fluff). |
| Domain | Usage | |
Screenplays | I listened but then I got a piece of fluff in my ear. Rabbit, could you start again from before the fluff got in my ear (Winnie the Pooh and Tigger Too!; writing credit: A.A. Milne; Ralph Wright) Oh, uh, I suppose you would think me a sentimental old fluff, but, uh, would you mind giving me lock of your hair (Duck Soup; writing credit: Bert Kalmar ; Harry Ruby) Oh, stuff and fluff! (The Many Adventures of Winnie the Pooh; writing credit: Ken Anderson; Xavier Atencio) | |
Movie/TV Titles | Fluff (1974) A Little Bit of Fluff (1928) Fluff (2003) | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | ||
| Domain | Title |
Books | |
Consumer Goods | |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
 |  |
| "A Lot 'o Fluff" by Lynn Cummings Commentary: "Not sure what this is, but its found in the fall here. Funny little stuff..." | "Fluffy blues 1" by K.C. Hohensee Commentary: "The clouds, like puffs of fluff were incredibly beautiful this particular afternoon." |
Source: photographs selected by the editor, with permission from the photographers. | |
| Title | Author | Quote |
Grapes of Wrath | Steinbeck, John | And your fingertips pick out the fluff, and the hands go twisting into the sack between your legs |
Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
| "Fluff" is generally used as a noun (singular) -- approximately 80.61% of the time. "Fluff" is used about 98 times out of a sample of 100 million words spoken or written in English. Its rank is based on over 700,000 words used in the English language. Some parts-of-speech are not covered due to the samples used by the British National Corpus. (note: percents less than one-hundredth of one percent have been omitted) |
| Parts of Speech | Percent | Usage per 100 Million Words | Rank in English |
| Noun (singular) | 80.61% | 79 | 37,388 |
| Lexical Verb (base form) | 6.12% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Noun (proper) | 6.12% | 6 | 143,867 |
| Lexical Verb (infinitive) | 5.1% | 5 | 157,705 |
| Noun (common) | 2.04% | 2 | 245,945 |
| Total | 100.00% | 98 | N/A |
Source: compiled by the editor from several corpora; see credits.
Expressions using "fluff": a bit of fluff ♦ bit of fluff ♦ bundle of fluff ♦ fluff out ♦ fluff up ♦ marshmallow fluff. Additional references. | |
| Hyphenated Usage | |
Beginning with "fluff": fluff-covered, fluff-free, fluff-headed, fluff-spreading. | |
Ending with "fluff": bum-fluff. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. | |
| The following statistics estimate the number of searches per day across the major English-language search engines as identified by various trade publications. Hyperlinks lead to commercial use of the expression at Amazon.com. |
| Language | Translations for "fluff"; alternative meanings/domain in parentheses. | |
Albanian | shkumë (foam, froth, scum, skim, spume, yeast), shkriftoj jastëkun, shkarje goje, rri pezull (float, hang, hover), push (bloom, Catkin, flue, fuzz, nap, pile, pubescence), mbulohet me push, më shket goja, katranosje (flub), bëj gabim (err, misbelieve, misstep, mistake, slip up). (various references) | |
Arabic | غلطة فاضحة, زغب (coma, fuzz, hairy, nap, pile, plumule, pubescence, quilt), خف (footwear, pump, sandal, slipper), إنتفخ (bag, balloon, belly, billow, bloat, bulge, distend, fill, heave, inflate, puff, strut, swell), أذهل, أخطأ (err, fumble, go wrong, goof, make a mistake, misfire, miss, mistake, sin, slip, stumble, trip up), شىء تافه (bagatelle, bauble, bosh, damn, duffer, dust, frivolity, froth, gewgaw, hog, joke, piffling, small beer, tripe, triviality), شىء زغب. (various references) | |
Bulgarian | ставам пухкав, сбърквам си ролята, фъндък (floccule, flock, lock), грешка при говорене, валмо, мъх (bristle, down, fuzz, moss, nap, pile, pubescence), засечка (backlash, falter, hitch, kink, misfire), лошо изиграна роля, пухче, пух (down, eiderdown, pile), придавам пухкав вид на, изпортвам (balk, boss, bungle, foozle, foul up, fumble). (various references) | |
Chinese | 绒毛. (various references) | |
Czech | chmýří (fuzz). (various references) | |
Danish | dun (down). (various references) | |
Dutch | waas (down), nesthaar (down), dons (down). (various references) | |
Esperanto | lanugo (down). (various references) | |
Faeroese | dún (down). (various references) | |
Finnish | untuva (down), nöyhtä (flock), massarevinnäinen. (various references) | |
French | duvet (fluf, fly). (various references) | |
Frisian | dûns (dance, down). (various references) | |
German | flaum (bloom, down, down fluff, floccus, fuzz). (various references) | |
Greek | χνούδι (down, floss, fuzz, nap, pile). (various references) | |
Hebrew | מוך (cotton, cotton wool, down, pulp, wad), קציפה (cream, custard, mousse, whipped cream), קצפת (mousse, whipped cream), כשות (down, hops, lanugo). (various references) | |
Hungarian | pihe (down, flake, flock, floss, flue, fuzz, nap, pile), pehely (eiderdown, flake, flakes, floccule, flock, floss, flue, fuzz, nap, ooze, pappus, plume). (various references) | |
Italian | fango gonfiato, peluria (down, fuzz, nap, undercoat), lanugine (down, floss, fuzz), lanuggine (floccus, pappus). (various references) | |
Japanese Kanji | 糸屑 (piece of thread), 綿埃 (dustballs), 綿毛 (down, fuzz), 毛羽 (fuzz). (various references) | |
Japanese Katakana | いとくず (piece of thread), わたぼこり (dustballs), わたげ (down, fuzz), めんもう (down, fuzz), けば (fuzz). (various references) | |
Manx | jannoo purtloge jeh, cur yn critlagh seose, critlagh (rag). (various references) | |
Norwegian | lo. (various references) | |
Pig Latin | uffflay.(various references) | |
Portuguese | penugem (down, downiness, floss, hair, nap, wool), lanugem (down, fuzz, nap). (various references) | |
Romanian | femeiuşcã (chit, female), scamã (flue, fuzz, lint, nap, squama), scãmoşa (shred), rol neînvãţat bine, puf (bloom, down, floss, flue, fuzz, lint, nap), pãr fin (soft hair), bâlbâialã (babble, impediment, lisp, stammering). (various references) | |
Russian | ворс (nap), взбивать (backcomb, beat), пух (down, fuzz, nap), пушить пушок. (various references) | |
Serbo-Croatian | zapeti u govoru, učiniti paperjastim, paperje (down, eiderdown, plumule), omaška u govoru. (various references) | |
Spanish | pelusa (down, fuzz, shag). (various references) | |
Swedish | ludd (down, flue, fuzz, nap), fjun (down, floss, fur, fuzz), dun (down, flue). (various references) | |
Thai | สิ่งที่เป็นปุยหรือใยฟู, ทำให้ฟูฟ่อง, ทำผิดพลาด (botch, muff), ความผิดพลาด (fallibility, muff). (various references) | |
Turkish | fıstık (bit of fluff, crumpet, peanut, pistachio), yüzüne gözüne bulaştırmak (boggle, botch, bungle, crab, foozle, goof up, hash, hash up, make a hash of, make a mess of, make cock-up of smth., mess things up, mess up, muddle, scamp), tüy döküntüsü, tüy (down, feather, hair, nap, pile, plume, quill, villus), söyleyeceği sözü unutmak, kabartmak (blister, bloat, bloat up, fluff out, fluff up, puff, puff up, raise, roughen, roughen up, ruffle, scribble, tease, vesicate), kötü atılım, işveli kadın (bit of fluff), hata (balk, baulk, blemish, delinquency, demerit, error, failing, false step, falsity, fault, faux pas, flaw, floater, gaffe, goof, imperfection, inaccuracy, lapse, mistake, slip, slip up, stumble, trip, wrong, wrongness), bozmak (abash, abolish, adulterate, affect, alloy, annihilate, annul, baffle, ball up, barbarize, bedevil, blemish, botch, break, break down, break off, break on, bugger, bugger up, bust, cash, change, circumvent, confound, confuse, contaminate, corrupt, cross, damage, debase, debauch, decay, declare off, deface, defile, destroy, deteriorate, disappoint, disarray, discolor, discolour, discomfit, discomfort, discompose, discountenance, dislocate, dismount, disorder, disrupt, dissolve, distort, disturb, downgrade, emasculate, embarrass, embroil, exchange, explode, foil, foul, foul up, fumble, garble, goof, goof up, gum up, Harry, impair, indispose, infect, infringe, lead astray, leaven, mangle, Mar, mess, murder, muss, mutilate, obliterate, pervert, pollute, put out, put out of action, put to shame, quash, queer, rattle, reverse, rot, ruffle, ruin, scotch, scupper, shatter, sour, spoil, stymie, taint, thwart, tousle, tumble, undo, unmake, upset, violate, vitiate, whittle away, whittle down, whittle off, wreck), berbat etmek (ball up, bitch, bitch up, botch, bring to ruin, bungle, cast a cloud on smth., cloud, crab, make nonsense of, mess things up, mess up, piss on smth., play the deuce with, ruin, screw up, spoil, vitiate), ayva tüyü (down, floss). (various references) | |
Turkmen | ьbtьk (down). (various references) | |
Ukrainian | розпушитися, обмовка, збиватися, пух (floss, fuzz, wool), підпушувати, похибка (oversight). (various references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various translation references. | ||
| Language | Period | Translations |
| Sumerian | 3100 BCE-2500 BCE | pe. (various references) |
| Latin | 500 BCE-Modern | vellus. (various references) |
| French | 1500-Modern | velu. (various references) |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references. | ||
Derivations | |
Words beginning with "fluff": fluffed, fluffier, fluffiest, fluffily, fluffiness, fluffinesses, fluffing, fluffs, fluffy. (additional references) | |
| |
"Fluff" is suggested in spellcheckers for the following: fluf, Fnuf, fuf, fuff, hluff, Luffa, lyff, sluff. (additional references) | |
| Source: compiled by the editor, based on several corpora (additional references). | |
| # of Phoneme Matches | Pronunciation | Word(s) rhyming with "fluff" (pronounced flu"f) |
| 3 | -l u" f | bluff, Luff, Slough. |
Source: compiled by the editor (additional references); see credits. | ||
Scrabble® Enable2K-Verified Anagrams | |
| Words within the letters "f-f-f-l-u" | |
-1 letter: luff. | |
-2 letters: flu. | |
| Words containing the letters "f-f-f-l-u" | |
+1 letter: fluffs, fluffy. | |
+2 letters: fluffed. | |
+3 letters: fluffier, fluffily, fluffing. | |
+4 letters: effortful, fluffiest, kerfuffle. | |
+5 letters: fluffiness, kerfuffles. | |
| Source: compiled by the editor from various references; see credits. SCRABBLE® is a registered trademark. All intellectual property rights in and to the game are owned in the U.S.A and Canada by Hasbro Inc., and throughout the rest of the world by J.W. Spear & Sons Limited of Maidenhead, Berkshire, England, a subsidiary of Mattel Inc. Mattel and Spear are not affiliated with Hasbro. | |
| 1. Definition 2. Synonyms 3. Crosswords 4. Usage: Modern | 5. Usage: Commercial 6. Images: Slideshow 7. Images: Digital Art 8. Quotations: Fiction | 9. Usage Frequency 10. Expressions 11. Expressions: Internet 12. Translations: Modern | 13. Translations: Ancient 14. Derivations 15. Rhymes 16. Anagrams | 17. Bibliography |
Copyright © Philip M. Parker, INSEAD. Terms of Use.
