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a soft, thick, light-yellow leather with a napped surface, originally made from buffalo skin but later also from other skins, used for making belts, pouches, etc.
a brownish-yellow color; tan.
a buff stick or buff wheel.
a devotee or well-informed student of some activity or subject:
Civil War buffs avidly read the new biography of Grant.
Informal. the bare skin:
in the buff.
Also called buffcoat. a thick, short coat of buffalo leather, worn especially by English soldiers and American colonists in the 17th century.
Informal. a buffalo.
having the color of buff.
made of buff leather.
Slang. physically attractive; muscular.
to clean or polish (metal) or give a grainless finish of high luster to (plated surfaces) with or as if with a buff stick or buff wheel.
to polish or shine, especially with a buffer:
to buff shoes.
to dye or stain in a buff color.
to reduce or deaden the force of; act as a buffer.
Chiefly British Dialect. a blow; slap.
buffe.
plate armor for the lower part of the face and the throat, used with a burgonet.
Contemporary Examples

‘This Is the End’ Is Last Blockbuster Rental Ever, Miley Cyrus Tweets About Pot Scandal Culture Team November 11, 2013
What Happened to Big-Screen Hunk Casper Van Dien? Ramin Setoodeh July 10, 2012
Government Shutdown: How Obama Rose Above Howard Kurtz April 7, 2011
Sia and Shia LaBeouf’s Pedophilia Nontroversy Over ‘Elastic Heart’ Marlow Stern January 8, 2015
Behind the Wheel of the Bespoke Bentley Zoe Settle October 26, 2014

Historical Examples

In Jeopardy Van Tassel Sutphen
Essays, First Series Ralph Waldo Emerson
Passages From the English Notebooks, Volume 1 Nathaniel Hawthorne
Harper’s Young People, October 5, 1880 Various
Buff: A Collie and other dog-stories Albert Payson Terhune

noun

a soft thick flexible undyed leather made chiefly from the skins of buffalo, oxen, and elk
(as modifier): a buff coat

a dull yellow or yellowish-brown colour
(as adjective): buff paint

Also called buffer

a cloth or pad of material used for polishing an object
a flexible disc or wheel impregnated with a fine abrasive for polishing metals, etc, with a power tool

(informal) one’s bare skin (esp in the phrase in the buff)
verb
to clean or polish (a metal, floor, shoes, etc) with a buff
to remove the grain surface of (a leather)
verb
(transitive) to deaden the force of
noun
(archaic) a blow or buffet (now only in the phrase blind man’s buff)
noun
(informal) an expert on or devotee of a given subject: a cheese buff
n.

The Buffs are men and boys whose love of fires, fire-fighting and firemen is a predominant characteristic. [N.Y. “Sun,” Feb. 4, 1903]

adj.
v.
see: in the buff