Faff vs Daff - What's the difference?
faff | daff |
(British, slang) An unnecessary or over-complicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.
* 2011 , Patrick Kingsley, "
(British, slang) To waste time on an unproductive activity.
:She faffed about so much, she never got to eat her breakfast.
To toss (aside); to dismiss.
* 1599 ,
*:DON PEDRO. I would she had bestowed this dotage on me; I would have daffed all other respects and made her half myself.
*1948 , (CS Lewis), ‘Notes on the Way’:
*:Such is the record of Scripture. Nor can you daff it aside by saying that local and temporary conditions condemned women to silence and private life.
To turn (someone) aside; divert.
As nouns the difference between faff and daff
is that faff is an unnecessary or over-complicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time while daff is a fool; an idiot; a blockhead.As verbs the difference between faff and daff
is that faff is to waste time on an unproductive activity while daff is to be foolish; make sport; play; toy.faff
English
Noun
(en noun)- Adjusting this television is a bit of a faff .
Life with the Queen Mum revealed", The Guardian
- Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff . A page boy must carry the tray upstairs, but he's banned from actually serving it. So he leaves it on the floor by the bedroom door, whereupon a housemaid picks it up and knocks on said portal.
Verb
(en verb)- I decided to stop faffing about and get some work done.