Jeff

American

[jef] / dʒɛf /

noun

a male given name, form of Jeffrey.

jeff British

/ dʒɛf /

verb

to downsize or close down (an organization)
to reduce (staff numbers) or dismiss (an employee)
to spoil or destroy ruthlessly

"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

Etymology

Origin of jeff

C20: named after Jeff Kennett, former premier of the state of Victoria, Australia

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.

Area houses “became out of reach for a lot of people, really fast,” said Jeff Davis of Horsley Witten Group, a consulting firm that Groton has hired to help tackle the housing shortage.

From The Wall Street Journal • Apr. 18, 2026

Gaze over the rim of your glass to notice Jeff Koons and Ed Ruscha talking closely beside the DJ booth.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 17, 2026

Another recent entrant into the satellite internet competition is Blue Origin, the rocket startup from Amazon founder and former chief executive Jeff Bezos.

From BBC • Apr. 14, 2026

“The sentence construction ‘it’s not X, it’s Y’ is one of the biggest tells in AI,” Jeff Gaunt, founder of Gaunt Strategies, told Shaina.

From Barron's • Apr. 14, 2026

Jeff had been pretty quiet the whole afternoon.

From "Firegirl" by Tony Abbott

Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023