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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

daff.

A fool; an idiot; a blockhead.

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/dæf/UK
  1. A fool; an idiot; a blockhead.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English daf, daffe (“fool, idiot”), from Old Norse daufr (“deaf, stupid”), from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (“deaf, stunned”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, whirl, smoke, be obscure”). Doublet of deaf, dof, and dowf. Cognate with Swedish döv (“deaf”), Danish døv (“deaf, stupid”). More at deaf.

verb/dæf/UK
  1. To be foolish; make sport; play; toy.

    Scotland · intransitive
  2. To daunt.

    UK · dialectal · obsolete
Where this word comes from

From Middle English daffen (“to render foolish”), from daf, daffe (“fool, idiot”). See above.

verb/dæf/UK
  1. To toss (aside); to dismiss.

    transitive
  2. To turn (someone) aside; divert.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

Variant of doff.

noun/dæf/UK
  1. A preparation of gypsum once used to adulterate food products.

    obsolete · uncountable
noun/dæf/UK
  1. Clipping of daffodil.

    UK · abbreviation · alt-of · clipping · informal
    Get your daffs here - £2 a bunch.
Where this word comes from

From daffodil.

noun/dæf/UK
  1. Alternative form of daf (“type of drum”).

    alt-of · alternative
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.