Cuff vs Muff - What's the difference?
cuff | muff |
(obsolete) glove; mitten.
The end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist.
The end of a pants leg, folded up.
To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.
* Shakespeare
* Dryden
To fight; to scuffle; to box.
* Dryden
To buffet.
* Tennyson
A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.
* Spenser
* Hudibras
(lb) A piece of fur or cloth, usually with open ends, used for keeping the hands warm.
*
*:Selwyn, sitting up rumpled and cross-legged on the floor, after having boloed Drina to everybody's exquisite satisfaction, looked around at the sudden rustle of skirts to catch a glimpse of a vanishing figure—a glimmer of ruddy hair and the white curve of a youthful face, half-buried in a muff .
(lb) Female pubic hair; the vulva.
(lb) A blown cylinder of glass which is afterward flattened out to make a sheet.
The feathers sticking out from both sides of the face under the beak of some birds.
A short hollow cylinder surrounding an object such as a pipe.
(colloquial) A fool, a stupid or poor-spirited person.
* Thackeray
A bird, the whitethroat.
(sport) To drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly.
To mishandle; to bungle.
* 1977 , (Alistair Horne), A Savage War of Peace , New York Review Books 2006, p. 69:
As nouns the difference between cuff and muff
is that cuff is glove; mitten while muff is a piece of fur or cloth, usually with open ends, used for keeping the hands warm.As verbs the difference between cuff and muff
is that cuff is to furnish with cuffs while muff is to drop or mishandle (the ball, a catch etc.); to play badly.cuff
English
Etymology 1
From (etyl) cuffe, .Noun
(en noun)Etymology 2
1520, “to hit”, apparently of (etyl) origin, from (etyl) . More at (l), (l), (l).Verb
(en verb)- I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again.
- They with their quills did all the hurt they could, / And cuffed the tender chickens from their food.
- While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport.
- cuffed by the gale
Noun
(en noun)- Snatcheth his sword, and fiercely to him flies; / Who well it wards, and quitten cuff with cuff.
- Many a bitter kick and cuff .
muff
English
(wikipedia muff)Etymology 1
Probably from (etyl) .Noun
(en noun)Synonyms
* whiskers, beard, muff and beard (bird feathers)Etymology 2
Origin unknown; perhaps a specialised use of Etymology 1, above.Noun
(en noun)- a muff of a curate
Verb
(en verb)- Here was the superlative opportunity to make a generous and lasting settlement from a position of strength; but the pieds noirs , like the Israelis, and from not altogether dissimilar motives, were to muff it.
