daff

== English == === Pronunciation === (UK) IPA(key): /dæf/ Rhymes: -æf === Etymology 1 === From Middle English daf, daffe (“fool, idiot”), from Old Norse daufr (“deaf, stupid”), from Proto-Germanic *daubaz (“deaf, stunned”), from Proto-Indo-European *dʰewbʰ- (“to whisk, whirl, smoke, be obscure”). Doublet of deaf, dof, and dowf. Cognate with Swedish döv (“deaf”), Danish døv (“deaf, stupid”). More at deaf. ==== Noun ==== daff (plural daffs) A fool; an idiot; a blockhead. ===== Derived terms ===== bedaff daffish daffock daffy === Etymology 2 === From Middle English daffen (“to render foolish”), from daf, daffe (“fool, idiot”). See above. ==== Verb ==== daff (third-person singular simple present daffs, present participle daffing, simple past and past participle daffed) (intransitive, Scotland) To be foolish; make sport; play; toy. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To daunt. ===== Derived terms ===== daffing daffle === Etymology 3 === Variant of doff. ==== Verb ==== daff (third-person singular simple present daffs, present participle daffing, simple past and past participle daffed) (transitive) To toss (aside); to dismiss. (transitive) To turn (someone) aside; divert. === Etymology 4 === From daffodil. ==== Noun ==== daff (plural daffs) (UK, informal) Clipping of daffodil. === Etymology 5 === ==== Noun ==== daff (plural daffs) Alternative form of daf (“type of drum”). === Etymology 6 === ==== Noun ==== daff (uncountable) (obsolete) A preparation of gypsum once used to adulterate food products. === Anagrams === aff'd == Norwegian Nynorsk == === Adjective === daff (neuter singular daft, definite singular and plural daffe, comparative daffare, indefinite superlative daffast, definite superlative daffaste) energyless (about somebody) == Yola == === Verb === daff alternative form of doff === References === Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828), William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 35