kerfuffle
[ ker-fuhf-uh l ]
/ kərˈfʌf əl /
noun
Chiefly British Informal. a fuss; commotion.
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What’s Nuclear About A Football?Whose nuclear launch button is bigger? There has been a serious kerfuffle in the news about buttons and their relative size. Specifically, nuclear launch buttons. Kim Jong-un, the leader of North Korea, flatly stated that a nuclear button is on his desk at all times. “It’s not a mere threat but a reality that I have a nuclear button on the desk in my office.” …
RELATED WORDS
commotion, disruption, disturbance, disorder, tumult, splash, convulsion, upheaval, fracas, melee, row, brouhaha, unrest, fiasco, chaos
Nearby words
Origin of kerfuffle
1945–50; < Scots curfuffle < cur- (< Scots Gaelic car ‘to twist, turn’ < Old Irish cor ‘a turn’) + fuffle ‘to disorder, confuse’ (of imitative origin)
Dictionary.com Unabridged
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019
Examples from the Web for kerfuffle
British Dictionary definitions for kerfuffle
kerfuffle
carfuffle or kurfuffle
/ (kəˈfʌfəl) /
noun
informal, mainly British commotion; disorder; agitation
verb
(tr) Scot to put into disorder or disarray; ruffle or disarrange
Word Origin for kerfuffle
from Scottish curfuffle, carfuffle, from Scottish Gaelic car twist, turn + fuffle to disarrange
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition
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