• IPA: /hʌf/

huff (plural huffs)

1. A heavy breath; a grunt#Noun|grunt or sigh#Noun|sigh.

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

2. An expression of anger#Noun|anger, annoyance, disgust#Noun|disgust, etc.
   • 1869 May, Anthony Trollope, “Hard Words”, in He Knew He Was Right, volume I, London: Strahan and Company, publishers, […], OCLC 1118026626 ↗, page 74 ↗:

     Such wickedness had never come into his head; but he had a certain pleasure in being the confidential friend of a very pretty woman; and when he heard that that pretty woman's husband was jealous, the pleasure was enhanced rather than otherwise. On that Sunday, as he had left the house in Curzon Street, he had told Stanbury that Trevelyan [the husband] had just gone off in a huff, which was true enough, and he had walked from thence down Clarges Street, and across Piccadilly to St. James's Street, with a jauntier step than usual, because he was aware that he himself had been the occasion of that trouble.

3. (obsolete) One swell#Verb|swelled with a false sense#Noun|sense of importance or value#Noun|value; a boaster.

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

huff (huffs, present participle huffing; past and past participle huffed)

1. (intransitive) To breathe heavily.

   The run left him huffing and puffing.

2. (intransitive) To say#Verb|say in a huffy manner#Noun|manner.
3. (intransitive) To enlarge; to swell up.

   Bread huffs.

4. (intransitive) To bluster#Verb|bluster or swell#Verb|swell with anger#Noun|anger, arrogance, or pride; to storm#Verb|storm; to take offense#Noun|offense. [from the 16th c.]

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

5. (intransitive) To treat#Verb|treat with arrogance and insolence; to chide or rebuke#Verb|rebuke rudely; to bully#Verb|bully, to hector#Verb|hector.

   • You must not presume to huff us.

6. (transitive) To inhale psychoactive inhalants. [from the 20th c.]
7. (transitive, draughts) To remove an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).

• IPA: /hʌf/

1. Surname