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Riff vs Miff - What's the difference?

riff | miff |

As an acronym riff

is .

As a noun miff is

a small argument, quarrel.

As a verb miff is

(usually used in the passive) to offend slightly.

riff

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • A repeated instrumental melody line in a song.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2009 , date=November 27 , author= , title=Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff' , work=BBC citation , page= , passage=Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the greatest guitar riff of all time, 41 years after it was recorded, in a poll by website Music Radar.}}
  • A clever or witty remark.
  • A variation on something.
  • *2012 , The Economist, London Skyline: Tower Power
    • Both the Orbit and the Pinnacle are riffs on an idea sketched out in 1917 by Vladimir Tatlin for a monument to international communism.
  • A spoof
  • * 26 June 2014 , A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together [http://www.avclub.com/review/paul-rudd-and-amy-poehler-spoof-rom-com-cliches-th-206220]
    • The creative team has experience with spoofing: Both Rudd and Poehler had parts in Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, a hysterically irreverent riff on ’80s summer-camp comedies.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.

    • See also

    * riff-raff * riffraff

    miff

    English

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • A small argument, quarrel.
  • * 1749, Henry Fielding, The History of Tom Jones, a Foundling
    • nay, she would throw it in the teeth of Allworthy himself, when a little quarrel, or miff , as it is vulgarly called, arose between them.
  • * 1872, Thomas Hardy, Under the Greenwood Tree
    • John Wildway and I had a miff and parted;...
  • A state of being offended.
  • * 1851, T. S. Arthur, Off-Hand Sketches
    • She's taken a miff at something, I suppose, and means to cut my acquaintance.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • (usually used in the passive) to offend slightly
  • *
  • * 1824, Sir Walter Scott, Redgauntlet
    • ... answered my Thetis, a little miffed perhaps -- to use the women's phrase -- that I turned the conversation upon my former partner, rather than addressed it to herself.
  • * 1911, James Oliver Curwood, Philip Steele of the Royal Northwest Mounted Police
    • "Don't get miffed about it, man," returned Nome with an irritating laugh.
  • to become slightly offended
  • * 1905, George Barr McCutcheon, Jane Cable
    • She miffed and started to reply, but thought better of it.