bouffant

[boo-fahnt, boo-fahnt; French boo-fahn]

SEE MORE SYNONYMS FOR bouffant ON THESAURUS.COM

adjective

puffed out; full: a bouffant skirt.

noun

a woman's hair style in which the hair is teased to give an overall puffed-out appearance and often combed to frame the face.

Origin of bouffant

1875–80; < French: literally, swelling (bouff(er) to swell + -ant -ant)

Related formsbouf·fan·cy

[boo-fuh n-see] /ˈbu fən si/, nounsem·i·bouf·fant, adjective

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

Examples from the Web for bouffant

Contemporary Examples of bouffant

And now the same thing is happening with her signature pillowy, bouffant hairstyle, reports The Daily Mail.
Margaret Thatcher's Hairstyle Craze
Misty White Sidell
April 30, 2013
This time the actress is on set in Monte Carlo wearing a giant ball gown and bouffant hairdo.
Carine Roitfeld To Launch Fragrance, L'Wren Scott Might Design Angelina Jolie's Wedding Dress
The Fashion Beast Team
October 31, 2012
She ditches her plaid knee-highs for Audrey Hepburn-style shift dresses, fur stoles, red lipstick and a bouffant.
A Touch of Audrey
Rachel Syme
October 9, 2009

Historical Examples of bouffant

She smiled to see the old men with their high-waisted pants and the old women with their bouffant hair.
Makers
Cory Doctorow
To the American eye it is a musical comedy costume, picturesque, bouffant, amazing.
Fanny Herself
Edna Ferber

British Dictionary definitions for bouffant

bouffant

adjective

(of a hair style) having extra height and width through back-combing; puffed out

(of sleeves, skirts, etc) puffed out

noun

a bouffant hair style

Word Origin for bouffant

C20: from French, from bouffer to puff up

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for bouffant

adj.

1869, from French bouffant, present participle of bouffer "to puff out," from Old French bouffer (12c.), from Vulgar Latin *buffare, probably ultimately imitative of puffing. As a noun by 1870. Earlier as a French word in English. First used of hairdo style 1955.