MUFF

fumble, muff

(noun) (sports) dropping the ball

muff

(noun) a warm tubular covering for the hands

botch, bodge, bumble, fumble, botch up, muff, blow, flub, screw up, ball up, spoil, muck up, bungle, fluff, bollix, bollix up, bollocks, bollocks up, bobble, mishandle, louse up, foul up, mess up, fuck up

(verb) make a mess of, destroy or ruin; “I botched the dinner and we had to eat out”; “the pianist screwed up the difficult passage in the second movement”

muff

(verb) fail to catch, as of a ball

Source: WordNet® 3.1


Etymology 1

Noun

muff (plural muffs)

(historical) A piece of fur or cloth, usually with open ends, used for keeping the hands warm.

(vulgar, slang) Female pubic hair; female genitals.

(by extension) A woman or girl.

(glassblowing) A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.

The feathers sticking out from both sides of the face under the beak of some birds.

A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object such as a pipe.

Synonyms

• whiskers, beard, muff and beard (bird feathers)

Etymology 2

Noun

muff (plural muffs)

(colloquial) A fool, a stupid or poor-spirited person. [from 19th c.]

(slang, chiefly sports) An error, a mistake; a failure to hold a ball when once in the hands. [from 19th c.]

A bird, the whitethroat.

Verb

muff (third-person singular simple present muffs, present participle muffing, simple past and past participle muffed)

(sport) To drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly. [from 19th c.]

To mishandle; to bungle. [from 1920s]

Etymology 3

Shortening.

Noun

muff (plural muffs)

(slang) A muffin.

Proper noun

Muff (plural Muffs)

A surname.

Statistics

• According to the 2010 United States Census, Muff is the 22838th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 1121 individuals. Muff is most common among White (76.81%) and Black/African American (19.54%) individuals.

Source: Wiktionary


Muff, n. Etym: [Cf. LG. muff, D. mof, G., Dan., & Sw. muff, F. moufle mitten, LL. muffula, MHG. mouwe sleeve, D. mouw, and E. muffle, v.]

1. A soft cover of cylindrical form, usually of fur, worn by women to shield the hands from cold.

2. (Mech.)

Definition: A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object, as a pipe.

3. (Glass Manuf.)

Definition: A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.

4. Etym: [Perhaps a different word; cf. Prov. E. maffle to slammer.]

Definition: A stupid fellow; a poor-spirited person. [Colloq.] "A muff of a curate." Thackeray.

5. Etym: [See 4.] (Baseball)

Definition: A failure to hold a ball when once in the hands.

6. (Zoöl.)

Definition: The whitethroat. [Prov. Eng.]

Muff, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Muffed; p. pr. & vb. n. Muffing.]

Definition: To handle awkwardly; to fumble; to fail to hold, as a ball, in catching it.

Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition



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Word of the Day

23 December 2024

QUANDONG

(noun) Australian tree having hard white timber and glossy green leaves with white flowers followed by one-seeded glossy blue fruit


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Coffee Trivia

The earliest credible evidence of coffee-drinking as the modern beverage appeared in modern-day Yemen. In the middle of the 15th century in Sufi shrines where coffee seeds were first roasted and brewed for drinking. The Yemenis procured the coffee beans from the Ethiopian Highlands.

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