powder puff
noun
a soft, feathery ball or pad, as of cotton or down, for applying powder to the skin.
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powder puff
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powder-puff
powder-puffadjectivelimited to participation by women or girls.
powder puff
1 Americannoun
powder-puff
2
American
[pau-der-puhf]
/ ˈpaʊ dərˌpʌf /
adjective
Informal.
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limited to participation by women or girls.
She plays on the powder-puff touch football team.
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inconsequential; trifling; lightweight.
a powder-puff company with little financing and a weak sales effort.
powder puff
British
noun
Etymology
Origin of powder puff1
First recorded in 1695–1705
Origin of powder-puff2
First recorded in 1935–40
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.
See Examples For:
“To do another take, they’d first brought in helicopters to blow the sand but that didn’t really work. Then they used a very big version of a powder puff on a high pole.”
From Los Angeles Times ● May 6, 2024
The Sun Devils haven't been world-beaters so far, but they've played two powder puff opponents.
From Fox News ● Sep. 17, 2021
Mr. Martin suggested using a large, fluffy brush to set the makeup, then a powder puff afterward to push in and lock down the applied products.
From New York Times ● Jul. 3, 2021
She imagines swooning in his arms like some gauzy thirties film starlet, propped up on a blue powder puff and surrounded by thornless roses as he tells her he loves her.
From The New Yorker ● Nov. 9, 2015
She has a little breathless voice and a startled little laugh; even her name is like a powder puff.
From "Cat's Eye" by Margaret Atwood
More timidity to observe, more vulnerability in defence, more powder-puff stuff up front, more wide men running in ever decreasing circles.
From BBC ● Oct. 23, 2025
At 5-5 City were going out because of those three away goals conceded by their powder-puff backline: whatever Guardiola claims, defence is his and City’s glaring faultline.
From The Guardian ● Mar. 16, 2017
Her career almost ended during a charity powder-puff football game during her junior year at Eastern High School in Vorhees, N.J.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jul. 27, 2016
He’d be in the same position now, powder-puff football or not.
From New York Times ● Jun. 28, 2016
It was the first time in all her young life that she had held a powder-puff in her hand.
From The Undying Past by Hermann Sudermann
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Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
