guff

[guhff]

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noun Informal.

empty or foolish talk; nonsense.

insolent talk.

Origin of guff

First recorded in 1815–25; perhaps imitative

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

Related Words for guff

hogwash, crap, rubbish, garbage, bunk, baloney, hooey, foolishness, drivel, poppycock, bull, bunkum, flapdoodle

Examples from the Web for guff

Contemporary Examples of guff

(Branch) Rickey selected Jackie because he knew he could withstand the guff.
Playing Pinochle and Breaking Barriers With Jackie Robinson
Evan Weiner
March 30, 2014
Is there a sassy but kindly Black female lawmaker who lives next door the quartet, speaking sense to men and not taking no guff?
‘Alpha House’ Review: Amazon’s Comedy Falls to Sitcom Predictability, Gay Jokes
David Freedlander
November 15, 2013

Historical Examples of guff

Was love really what it was cracked up to be, or had the novelists handed us guff?
The Harbor
Ernest Poole
But there are things in it that are just guff, Henry, just guff.
Changing Winds
St. John G. Ervine
Pipe down that guff, you unlicked cub, or I'll crown you with a proof-bar!
Spacehounds of IPC
Edward Elmer Smith
Let's face a few facts, Thorndyke, and stop tossing this guff.
Highways in Hiding
George Oliver Smith
Fred Macklin interrupted, "Look, Dad, why are we bothering with all this guff?"
Highways in Hiding
George Oliver Smith

British Dictionary definitions for guff

guff

noun

slang ridiculous or insolent talk

Word Origin for guff

C19: imitative of empty talk; compare dialect Norwegian gufs puff of wind

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 guff

"empty talk, nonsense," 1888, from earlier sense of "puff of air" (1825), of imitative origin.