buffalo

[buhf-uh-loh]

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noun, plural buf·fa·loes, buf·fa·los, (especially collectively) buf·fa·lo.

any of several large wild oxen of the family Bovidae.Compare bison, Cape buffalo, water buffalo.

buffalo robe.

a buffalofish.

a shuffling tap-dance step.

verb (used with object), buf·fa·loed, buf·fa·lo·ing. Informal.

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.

Origin of buffalo

1535–45, Americanism; earlier bufalo < Portuguese (now bufaro) < Late Latin būfalus, variant of Latin būbalus bubal

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

Related Words for buffaloing

thrill, faze, excite, touch, affect, awe, sway, inspire, dismay, dishearten, constrain, bully, subdue, alarm, appall, coerce, daunt, scare, terrify, terrorize

Examples from the Web for buffaloing

Historical Examples of buffaloing

When it comes to buffaloing the opposite side, that's my long suit.
The Outlet
Andy Adams

British Dictionary definitions for buffaloing

Buffalo

noun

a port in W New York State, at the E end of Lake Erie. Pop: 285 018 (2003 est)

buffalo

noun plural -loes or -lo

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

short for water buffalo

Also called: bison US and Canadian 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 backRelated adjective: bubaline

verb (tr) US and Canadian informal

(often passive) to confuse

to intimidate

Word Origin for buffalo

C16: from Italian bufalo, from Late Latin būfalus, alteration of Latin būbalus; see bubal

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 buffaloing

buffalo

1580s (earlier buffel, 1510s, from Middle French), from Portuguese bufalo "water buffalo," from Latin bufalus, variant of bubalus "wild ox," from Greek boubalos "buffalo," originally a kind of African antelope, later used of a type of domesticated ox in southern Asia and the Mediterranean lands, perhaps from bous "ox, cow" (see cow (n.)). Wrongly applied since 1630s to the American bison. Buffalo gnat is recorded from 1822.

Buffalo

city in western New York state, U.S., of disputed origin (there never were buffalo thereabouts), perhaps from the name of a native chief, or a corruption of French beau fleuve "beautiful river." Buffalo wings finger food so called because the recipe was invented in Buffalo (1964, at Frank & Teressa's Anchor Bar on Main Street).

buffalo

"alarm, overawe," 1900, from buffalo (n.). Probably from the animals' tendency to mass panic. Related: Buffaloed; buffaloing.

buffaloing in Culture

Buffalo

City in western New York, on Lake Erie and the Niagara River.

Note

Niagara Falls is northwest of Buffalo.