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Duffer vs Duffed - What's the difference?

duffer | duffed |

As a noun duffer

is (male) dove, cock pigeon.

As a verb duffed is

(duff).

duffer

English

Adjective

(head)
  • (duff)

    • Noun

    (en noun)
  • (informal) An incompetent or clumsy person.
  • *1899 ,
  • *:Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas showing himself a hopeless duffer at the business.
  • (sports) A player having little skill, especially a golfer who duffs.
  • (archaic) A pedlar or hawker, especially one selling cheap or substandard goods.
  • (archaic) Cheap or substandard goods sold by a duffer .
  • A cow that does not produce milk.
  • * 1908 , Proceedings of the Agricultural Society of Trinidad and Tobago , Volume 8, page 116,
    • We have some good cows in this State, but, unfortunately, we have too many duffer cows that are not only being fed and milked at a loss hut are eating up a portion of the profit of the good cow which is being milked alongside them.
  • * 1934''', Victorian Department of Agriculture, ''Journal of Agriculture , Volume 32, page 293,
    • The truth is that cattlemen love a typical cow for her beauty and symmetry of form ; but every herd-testing dairyman knows that an ugly animal may be a good producer, while many a beautiful cow is a duffer .
  • (Australia, dated) A cattle thief; one who alters the brands of cattle.
  • * 2004 , Deborah Bird Rose, Reports from a Wild Country: Ethics for Decolonisation , page 112,
    • Judy was an associate (‘stud’) of a Whitefella cattle duffer named Brigalow Bill (aka WJJ Ward).
  • * 2010 , Evan McHugh, The Drovers
    • In the mid-1860s a duffer' named James Harnell, who went by the nickname Narran Jim, had taken stock he?d stolen from the district around Culgoa and Narran rivers across Queensland to the Cooper.An alert Bulloo Downs stockman contacted the police, and when Police Inspector Fitzgerald and eight Aboriginal troopers tracked Narran Jim and surrounded him while he was sleeping, the cattle ' duffer woke to find himself looking down the barrel of Fitzgerald?s revolver and seven years in jail.
  • * 2011 , Clancy Tucker, Gunnedah Hero , unnumbered page,
    • The cattle duffer ?s escape would have been impeded by those young ones. Calves can be unruly unless you move them carefully in the company of their mothers.

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Anagrams

    *

    duffed

    English

    Verb

    (head)
  • (duff)

    • duff

    English

    Etymology 1

    Representing a northern pronunciation of (dough).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (dialectal) Dough.
  • A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed
  • * 1901 , , short story The Ghosts of Many Christmases'', published in ''Children of the Bush [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7065]:
    • The storekeeper had sent them an unbroken case of canned plum pudding, and probably by this time he was wondering what had become of that blanky case of duff .

    Etymology 2

    Origin uncertain; probably imitative.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (Scotland, US) Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.
  • * 1999 , (George RR Martin), A Clash of Kings , Bantam 2011, p. 366:
    • Out under the trees, some rangers had found enough duff and dry wood to start a fire beneath a slanting ridge of slate.
  • Coal dust.
  • (slang) The bits left in the bottom of the bag after the booty has been consumed, like crumbs.
  • Something spurious or fake; a counterfeit, a worthless thing.
  • An error.

    • Adjective

    (er)
  • (UK) Worthless; not working properly, defective.
    • Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?
  • * 1996 , , State of Desire , page 155,
    • From its surface, he insisted, plain food became ambrosia, water nectar, and the duffest dope would blow your mind.
  • * 2003 , , page 315,
    • One will win the coveted Hollywood Science Award, which, in Robert?s words “is given in recognition of the duffest science in movie-dom” so it will be worth tuning in to find out what movie stunt wins.
  • * 2009 , , Paperboy , page 225,
    • All the other parts were played by a gallery of Dickensian character actors, including Thorley Walters, Francis Matthews and, yes, Michael Ripper, who lent gravitas to the duffest dialogue lines.
    Synonyms
    * (defective) bum (US)

    Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (US, slang) The buttocks.

    • Etymology 4

    Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from (duffer).

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (slang, obsolete) To disguise something to make it look new.
  • (Australia) To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
  • To beat up.
    • I heard Nick got duffed up behind the shopping centre at the weekend.
  • (US, golf) To hit the ground behind the ball.
    • Related terms
    * duffer

    See also

    * up the duff