- 1[intransitive, transitive] to smoke a cigarette, pipe, etc. puff (at/on something) He puffed (away) on his pipe. puff something I sat puffing my cigar.
- 2[transitive, intransitive] to make smoke or steam blow out in clouds; to blow out in clouds puff something (out) Chimneys were puffing out clouds of smoke. puff (out) Steam puffed out.
- 3[intransitive, transitive] (+ speech) (informal) to breathe loudly and quickly, especially after you have been running synonym gasp I was starting to puff a little from the climb.
- 4[intransitive] + adv./prep. to move in a particular direction, sending out small clouds of smoke or steam The train puffed into the station. Idioms
- 1to breathe in a noisy way because you are very tired Jack was huffing and puffing to keep up with her.
- 2to make it obvious that you are annoyed about something without doing anything to change the situation After much huffing and puffing, she finally agreed to help.
puff
verbNAmE//pʌf//
Verb Forms present simple I / you / we / they puff he / she / it puffs
past simple puffed
-ing form puffing
to be too full of pride, etc. He felt grown-up, puffed up with self-importance.
to breathe quickly and loudly through your mouth after physical effort Eventually, puffing and panting, he arrived at the gate. Phrasal Verbspuff outpuff up
Check pronunciation: puff