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-puffadjectivelimited to participation by women or girls.
powder puff
1 Americannoun
powder-puff
2
American
[pou-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
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
In the early years, stock car races, demolition derbies and powder puff races happened at the track.
From Washington Times ● May 7, 2015
Instead of a powder puff, there was a chamois leather bag with powdered chalk in it, scented with attar of roses from the crusades.
From "The Once and Future King" by T. H. White
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
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
As for Chennai, powder-puff in the pace department, "Deadly" Doug Bollinger can't arrive soon enough.
From The Guardian ● Apr. 2, 2010
Mademoiselle Rosine had told her while she stood on tiptoe and dabbed at her cheeks with a powder-puff, that she was too cold.
From The Missioner by E. Phillips (Edward Phillips) Oppenheim
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
