buffalo
noun
any of several large wild oxen of the family Bovidae.
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buffalo
1 American
[buhf-uh-loh]
/ ˈbʌf əˌloʊ /
noun
-
buffaloes,
plural
-
buffalos,
plural
-
buffalo
plural
-
any of several large wild oxen of the family Bovidae.
-
a buffalofish.
-
a shuffling tap-dance step.
verb (used with object)
Informal.
-
buffalos,
present (3rd person singular)
-
buffaloed,
past participle, past
-
buffaloing
present participle
-
to puzzle or baffle; confuse; mystify.
He was buffaloed by the problem.
-
to impress or intimidate by a display of power, importance, etc..
The older boys buffaloed him.
Buffalo
2
American
[buhf-uh-loh]
/ ˈbʌf əˌloʊ /
noun
buffalo
1
British
/ ˈbʌfəˌləʊ /
noun
-
Also called: Cape buffalo. a member of the cattle tribe, Syncerus caffer , mostly found in game reserves in southern and eastern Africa and having upward-curving horns
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short for water buffalo
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Also called: bison. a member of the cattle tribe, Bison bison , formerly widely distributed over the prairies of W North America but now confined to reserves and parks, with a massive head, shaggy forequarters, and a humped back
verb
-
(often passive) to confuse
-
to intimidate
Buffalo
2
British
/ ˈbʌfəˌləʊ /
noun
Buffalo
Cultural
Discover More
Niagara Falls is northwest of Buffalo.
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
-
buffalosimple
-
buffalossimple
-
have buffaloedperfect
-
has buffaloedperfect
-
am buffaloingprogressive
-
are buffaloingprogressive
-
is buffaloingprogressive
-
have been buffaloingperfect progressive
-
has been buffaloingperfect progressive
Past
-
buffaloedsimple
-
had buffaloedperfect
-
was buffaloingprogressive
-
were buffaloingprogressive
-
had been buffaloingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of buffalo
1535–45, earlier bufalo < Portuguese (now bufaro ) < Late Latin būfalus, variant of Latin būbalus bubal
Explanation
A buffalo is a large, ox-like animal with horns and shaggy fur. In North America, a buffalo is another name for a bison. There are various types of buffalo around the world, including South Asia's water buffalo and the African buffalo, but the bison is the most well-known type of buffalo in the U.S. You can also use the word as a verb, meaning "to intimidate," and when it's capitalized, Buffalo is a city in New York state. These various meanings have resulted in the longest sentence in English that uses only one word: "Buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo buffalo buffalo Buffalo buffalo" meaning — Buffalonian (1) buffalos (2) that other Buffalonian (3) buffalos (4) scare (5) also scare (6) other Buffalonian (7) buffalos (8).
Vocabulary lists containing buffalo
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Amazing Animals, List 1
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Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
Tshenatshe Monwela, an elder in Maun, a tourism town in north-western Botswana told local media that his community should have received buffalo instead.
From BBC ● Sep. 30, 2026
Real-life proprietor Andrea Pruett, a sweet but steely Southerner who kept her own gun behind the counter, greeted them in French and German, then fed them buffalo burgers and omelets.
From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 22, 2026
Our favorite dish was the house-made pappardelle with buffalo mozzarella and cherry tomatoes, topped with beautifully seared scallops.
From Salon ● Sep. 8, 2026
The score, while respectable, was still lower than a buffalo chicken Caesar she sampled in Syracuse and a Caesar wrap from Sweetgreen.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Aug. 31, 2026
He sat down to carve up the buffalo and roast the meat.
From "A Girl Named Disaster" by Nancy Farmer
Before Monday night’s Buffalo Bills-Rams game at SoFi Stadium, FOS reports, Buck brought up the matter to his broadcast partner, and an argument ensued.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 15, 2026
The Rams had elected to boot the ball away and let the Buffalo Bills have it first.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 15, 2026
“When the ball was in his hands,” Buffalo coach Joe Brady said, “he made plays when we needed him to at the end.”
From The Wall Street Journal ● Oct. 13, 2026
The second-year kicker missed one attempt and had another blocked that could have won the game before the Rams lost in overtime to Buffalo.
From Los Angeles Times ● Oct. 13, 2026
Buffalo, with 185,000 elms, has an excellent record of containing the disease by sanitation, with recent annual losses amounting to only %o of 1 per cent.
From "Silent Spring" by Rachel Carson
There we met 60-year-old Rameshwar Yadav, a former private-school teacher who now reared buffaloes for a living.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Around noon, dozens of buffaloes stood in a pond.
From BBC ● Jun. 1, 2026
Judy, the first rabbit to join the city's police force, has proven to her macho colleagues — buffaloes, hippos, and warthogs — that she deserves her place in the investigative department.
From Barron's ● Nov. 25, 2025
It has some of the fewer than 100 remaining critically endangered mountain bongos in the world, alongside rhinos, elephants, buffaloes, lions, leopards and others.
From Seattle Times ● Feb. 2, 2024
Fiddler crabs scurry when you’re ten yards away; howler monkeys stir in their branches when you’re at twenty; African buffaloes react at seventy-five.
From "Life of Pi" by Yann Martel
The large mammals that once inhabited it like lions, rhinos and buffalos have all been hunted out, most likely for food during the war.
From BBC ● Jul. 15, 2024
This includes the taurine cattle found primarily in Europe and temperate areas of Asia; indicine cattle, or zebus, found primarily in India and tropical areas of Asia; and water buffalos in East and Southeast Asia.
From Science Daily ● Dec. 13, 2023
The family is from Ibrash, in the agricultural Nile Delta province of Sharqia, where water buffalos, cows and donkeys share dirt roads with cars, motorbikes and three-wheeled rickshaws known as tuk-tuks.
From Washington Times ● Jun. 19, 2023
In the famed Chibayish marshes, the carcasses of water buffalos float along the riverbanks, poisoned by the salty water.
From Seattle Times ● Nov. 17, 2022
I kept on walking, passing paddocks filled with horses, cows, and shaggy-furred cattle that I realized must be buffalos.
From "The City Beautiful" by Aden Polydoros
"Don’t be buffaloed by experts and elites," he said.
From Fox News ● Oct. 19, 2021
Laurie thinks she’s got Angela buffaloed, and then Angela comes back and basically cuts her legs from under her.
From Los Angeles Times ● Nov. 3, 2019
“You probably could have buffaloed people 10 years ago,” said Sassa.
From Time ● Feb. 18, 2015
Others complain that he has run the school with a somewhat autocratic hand and feel that they have been buffaloed into casting votes and rallying behind causes that they haven’t necessarily supported.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2012
Despite this, Dasch confidently assured them that he had "buffaloed" the man.
From Nazi Saboteurs by Samantha Seiple
When it comes to buffaloing the opposite side, that's my long suit.
From The Outlet by Andy Adams
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
