Duff Is a Pudding, a Failure and the Rough Off a Fairway
Duff means worthless in British slang. The same four letters name a boiled pudding and a golf mishit.
Duff means faulty or worthless in British informal English, and also names a boiled flour pudding. The pudding came first: *duff* is a dialect pronunciation of *dough*, giving *plum duff*, a heavy boiled pudding that was standard shipboard food. The sense of something worthless is separate and later. In golf, to *duff* a shot is to hit the ground behind the ball, and *up the duff* is Australian and British slang for pregnant.
- Faulty (British). *A duff engine.*
- A boiled pudding. *Plum duff.*
- To mishit. *He duffed the shot.*
- Duffer — an incompetent person. *A duffer.*
- Dialect — a form of *dough*. *The source.*
Word forms
| Form | Word | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Adjective | duff | Duff. |
| Noun | duff | Plum duff. |
| Verb | duff | Duffed. |
| Agent | duffer | A duffer. |
| Related | dough | Dough. |
- The information turned out duff.Faulty.
- Plum duff was ship's fare.Food.
- He duffed his tee shot.Golf.
Dialect spellings that became words
- Duff — a northern pronunciation of dough
- Lass — a northern form now general
- Bairn — a Scottish and northern word for child
- Nowt and owt — dialect forms of nought and aught
- Clemmed — a northern word for starving, still local
A dialect variant of *dough*, recorded from the 1800s. The sense of worthless is of separate and uncertain origin.
What is plum duff?
A heavy boiled flour pudding with dried fruit, once standard food aboard British ships. Duff is a dialect form of dough.
What does duff mean in golf?
To hit the ground behind the ball, so the shot travels only a short way.