Buff coat, a close, military outer garment, with short sleeves, and laced tightly over the chest, made of buffalo skin, or other thick and elastic material, worn by soldiers in the 17th century as a defensive covering. -- Buff jerkin, originally, a leather waistcoat; afterward, one of cloth of a buff color. [Obs.] Nares. -- Buff stick (Mech.), a strip of wood covered with buff leather, used in polishing.
Buff, v. t. To polish with a buff. See Buff, n., 5.
Buff, v. t. [OF. bufer to cuff, buffet. See Buffet a blow.] To strike. [Obs.] B. Jonson.
Buff, n. [See Buffet.] A buffet; a blow; -- obsolete except in the phrase "Blindman's buff."
Nathless so sore a buff to him it lent
That made him reel.
Spenser.
Buff, a. [Of uncertain etymol.] Firm; sturdy.
And for the good old cause stood buff,
'Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.
Hudibras.
||Buf"fa (&?;), n. fem. (Mus.) [It. See Buffoon.] The comic actress in an opera. -- a. Comic, farcical.
Aria buffa, a droll or comic air. -- Opera buffa, a comic opera. See Opera bouffe.
Buf"fa*lo (&?;), n.; pl. Buffaloes (&?;). [Sp. bufalo (cf. It. bufalo, F. buffle), fr. L. bubalus, bufalus, a kind of African stag or gazelle; also, the buffalo or wild ox, fr. Gr. &?; buffalo, prob. fr. &?; ox. See Cow the animal, and cf. Buff the color, and Bubale.] 1. (Zoöl.) A species of the genus Bos or Bubalus (B. bubalus), originally from India, but now found in most of the warmer countries of the eastern continent. It is larger and less docile than the common ox, and is fond of marshy places and rivers.
2. (Zoöl.) A very large and savage species of the same genus (B. Caffer) found in South Africa; -- called also Cape buffalo.