Definition of FLUFF

fluff

Plural: fluffs

Noun

  • any light downy material
  • something of little value or significance
  • a blunder (especially an actor's forgetting the lines)
  • Anything light, soft or fuzzy, especially fur, hair, feathers.
  • Anything inconsequential or superficial.
  • A lapse or mistake, especially a mistake in an actor's lines.
  • A cloth diaper.
  • Marshmallow creme.
  • A passive partner in a lesbian relationship.
  • A fart.
  • Fan fiction, or part of a fan fiction, which is sweet and feel-good in tone, usually involving romance.
  • A form of roleplaying which is inconsequential and not related to the plot; often used in the context of (but not limited to) filling time.
  • Short change deliberately given by a railway clerk, to keep back money for himself.

Verb

Verb Forms: fluffed, fluffing, fluffs

  • To make something light and soft by patting or shaking.
  • make a mess of, destroy or ruin
  • erect or fluff up
  • ruffle (one's hair) by combing the ends towards the scalp, for a full effect
  • To make something fluffy.
  • To become fluffy, puff up.
  • To move lightly like fluff.
  • To make a mistake in one's lines.
  • To do incorrectly, for example mishit, miskick, miscue etc.
  • To break wind, to fart.
  • To arouse (a male pornographic actor) before filming.
  • To bring to a state of excitement.
  • To deliberately shortchange (a railway customer) and keep the money for oneself.

Examples

  • She tried to FLUFF up her Scrabble score by adding a simple ’S’ to an existing word.
  • That article was basically a bunch of fluff. It didn't say anything substantive.
  • The cat fluffed its tail.

Origin / Etymology

From earlier floow (“woolly substance, down, nap, lint”), also spelt flough, flue, and flew, from West Flemish vluwe,
of uncertain ultimate origin:
* Compare Old English flōh (“that which is flown off, fragment, piece”); see flaw
* Possibly representing a blend of flue + puff; compare Middle Dutch vloe, or perhaps onomatopoeic; compare dialectal English floose, flooze, fleeze (“particles of wool or cotton; fluff; loose threads or fibres”), Danish fnug (“down, fluff”), Swedish fnugg (“speck, flake”).
* Alternatively, West Flemish vluwe may derive from French velu (“hairy, furry”), from Latin villūtus (“having shaggy hair”), from villus (“shaggy hair, tuft of hair”).
For words of similar sound and meaning in other languages, compare Japanese フワフワ (fuwafuwa, “lightly, softly”), Hungarian puha (“soft, fluffy”), Polish puchaty (“soft, fluffy”), Romanian puf (“down, peachfuzz, soft hair of some animals, powderpuff”).

Synonyms

bagatelle, ball up, blow, bobble, bodge, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, botch, botch up, bumble, bungle, flub, foul up, frippery, frivolity, fuck up, fumble, louse up, mess up, mishandle, muck up, muff, ruffle, screw up, spoil, tease, BS, all talk, blooper, blunder, boo-boo, cruft, defect, error, fault, faux pas, fuzz, gaffe, hype, lapse, mistake, oose, puff, schmoop, slip, stumble, thinko

Scrabble Score: 14

fluff: valid Scrabble (US) TWL Word
fluff: valid Scrabble Word in Merriam-Webster MW Dictionary
fluff: valid Scrabble Word in International Collins CSW Dictionary

Words With Friends Score: 16

fluff: valid Words With Friends Word