puff
noun/pʌf/
/pʌf/
- [countable] an act of breathing in something such as smoke from a cigarette, or drugs
- He had a few puffs at the cigar.
- Take two puffs from the inhaler every four hours.
- a puff on her cigarette
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- long
- short
- have
- take
- puff on
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- [countable] a small amount of air, smoke, etc. that is blown from somewhere
- a puff of wind
- She felt a puff of warm air on her face.
- Puffs of white smoke came from the chimney.
- (figurative) Any chance of success seemed to vanish in a puff of smoke (= to disappear quickly).
Oxford Collocations Dictionaryadjective- little
- small
- tiny
- …
- puff of
- [countable] a hollow piece of light pastry that is filled with cream, jam, etc. see also cream puff
- (North American English also puff piece)[countable] (informal, usually disapproving) a piece of writing or speech that praises somebody/something too much
- The press is full of puffs for his new movie.
- The magazine ran a puff piece on him last week.
- [uncountable] (especially British English, informal) breath
- The hill was very steep and I soon ran out of puff.
see also powder puff
Word OriginMiddle English: imitative of the sound of a breath, perhaps from Old English pyf (noun), pyffan (verb).
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puff