huff

noun

1. 1

   A heavy breath; a grunt or sigh.

   With a huff, he lifted the box onto the back of the truck.

2. 2

   figurativeA condition of anger, annoyance, disgust, etc.

   in a huff

   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.

3. 3

   obsoleteOne swelled with a false sense of importance or value; a boaster.

   Lewd, shallow-brained huffs make atheism and contempt of religion the sole badge [...] of wit.

4. 4

   The act of removing an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).

verb

1. 1

   To breathe heavily.

   The run left him huffing and puffing.

2. 2

   To say in a huffy manner.

3. 3

   To enlarge; to swell up.

   Bread huffs.

4. 4

   To bluster or swell with anger, arrogance, or pride; to storm; to take offense.

   This senseless arrogant conceit of theirs made them huff at the doctrine of repentance.

   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.

5. 5

   To treat with arrogance and insolence; to chide or rebuke rudely; to bully, to hector.

   […] 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.

6. 6

   archaicTo vex; to offend.

   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.

7. 7

   To inhale psychoactive inhalants.

8. 8

   To remove an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).

Forms

plural

huffs

past tense

huffed

past participle

huffed

present participle

huffing

third person singular

huffs