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Quiff vs Fringe - What's the difference?

quiff | fringe |

As nouns the difference between quiff and fringe

is that quiff is a puff or whiff, especially of tobacco smoke or quiff can be (regional|slang) a trick or ploy; a stratagem or quiff can be a hairstyle whereby the forelock is brushed and/or gelled upward, often associated with the styles of the 1950s or quiff can be (slang) a young girl, especially as promiscuous; a prostitute while fringe is a decorative border.

As verbs the difference between quiff and fringe

is that quiff is to arrange (the hair) in such a manner while fringe is to decorate with fringe.

As an adjective fringe is

outside the mainstream.

quiff

English

Etymology 1

Variant form of (whiff).

Noun

(en noun)
  • A puff or whiff, especially of tobacco smoke.

    • Etymology 2

    Origin unknown.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (regional, slang) A trick or ploy; a stratagem.
  • *1933 , (John Masefield), The Bird of Dawning :
  • *:It was young Mr. Abbott worked that quiff on you, sir.

    • Etymology 3

    Origin uncertain; perhaps a variant of (coif).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A hairstyle whereby the forelock is brushed and/or gelled upward, often associated with the styles of the 1950s.
  • *2012 , Tom Lamont, The Observer , 2 Sep 2012:
  • *:His woolly brown hair shaped into a drooping quiff , he's been sitting poolside all morning, snatching sucks on cigarettes before the waiters can tell him no, and thinking about reworking some incidental music for the band's gig tomorrow.

    • Verb

  • To arrange (the hair) in such a manner.

    • Etymology 4

    Probably variant of .

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (slang) A young girl, especially as promiscuous; a prostitute.
  • *1949 , (w, John O'Hara), Rage to Live :
  • *:How would I get an African toothache when the closest I been to a quiff in over a month is sitting next to one?
  • (slang) The vulva or vagina.
  • *2000 , (JG Ballard), Super-Cannes , Fourth Estate 2011, p. 120:
  • *:Jane was drying herself in the bedroom, holding the bath towel behind her shoulders, her small breasts and childlike nipples flushed from the power jet, her quiff a barely visible thread.

    • fringe

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A decorative border.
    • the fringe of a picture
  • A marginal or peripheral part.
  • * (and other bibliographic particulars) (Jeremy Taylor)
    • the confines of grace and the fringes of repentance
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=September 29 , author=Jon Smith , title=Tottenham 3 - 1 Shamrock Rovers , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=Dos Santos, who has often been on the fringes at Spurs since moving from Barcelona, whipped in a fantastic cross that Pavlyuchenko emphatically headed home for his first goal of the season.}}
  • Those members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views.
  • The periphery of a town or city.
    • He lives in the fringe of London.
  • That part of the hair that hangs down above the eyes; bangs.
    • Her fringe is so long it covers her eyes.
  • * 1915 , ":
    • In a few minutes Mrs. Athelny appeared. She had taken her hair out of the curling pins and now wore an elaborate fringe .
  • * 1981 , , HERmione , page 155,
    • Fayne in the photograph had a fringe , hair frizzed over hidden ears, sleeves over-ornate, the whole thing out of keeping.
  • * 2007 , , Sophie's Dilemma , page 16,
    • Ingeborg knew she wasn?t ready for fringes or short hair like some of the women she?d seen, and she hoped her daughter wasn?t either.
    “No.” Astrid?s tone dismissed Sophie and the fringe as she galloped off to a new topic.
  • * 2009 , Geraldine Biddle-Perry, Sarah Cheang, Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion , page 231,
    • Set against the seductive visual and textual imagery of these soft-focus fantasy worlds, the stock list details offer the reader a very real solution to achieving the look themselves, ‘Hair, including coloured fringes (obtainable from Joseph, £3.50) by Paul Nix’ (Baker 1972a: 68).
  • (label) A light or dark band formed by the diffraction of light.
    • interference fringe
  • Non-mainstream theatre.
    • The Fringe''; ''Edinburgh Fringe'''''; ''Adelaide '''Fringe
  • (label) The peristome or fringe-like appendage of the capsules of most mosses.

    • Synonyms

    * (hair in front) forelock, bangs (US) *

    Derived terms

    * fringe benefit * fringy * lunatic fringe

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Outside the mainstream.

    • Synonyms

    * nonmainstream

    Verb

    (fring)
  • To decorate with fringe.
  • To serve as a fringe.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 2
    • Purple bonnets fringed soft, pink, querulous faces on pillows in bath chairs.

    Anagrams

    *