huff
noun · verb
Simple meaning
A heavy breath.
Pronunciation
Say it like this:
huhfIPA pronunciation (US)
ˈhʌf
This word is pronounced essentially the same in American and British English, so one transcription covers both.
IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) is a standard way of writing speech sounds.
Definition
Everyday modern meanings first, grouped by part of speech.
noun
A heavy breath; a grunt or sigh.
figurative
A condition of anger, annoyance, disgust, etc.
draughts
The act of removing an opponent's piece as a forfeit for deliberately not taking a piece (often signalled by blowing on it).
A ghost town in Archer County, Texas, named after Charles C. Huff.
A number of places in the United States
verb
intransitive
To say in a huffy manner.
intransitive
To enlarge; to swell up.
intransitive
To bluster or swell with anger, arrogance, or pride; to storm; to take offense.
transitive
To treat with arrogance and insolence; to chide or rebuke rudely; to bully, to hector.
transitive
To inhale psychoactive inhalants.
intransitive
To breathe heavily.
Word at a Glance
- Difficulty
- C1 · Advanced (estimated)
- Frequency
- Uncommon
Word Aura™
How this word commonly comes across.
Aura for this meaning
This meaning: A heavy breath; a grunt or sigh.
Used this way, huff is a reasonably familiar word that usually carries little praise or criticism of its own. It usually sounds natural in a wide range of settings.
- Emotional tone
- Neutral
- Formality
- Neutral
- Intensity
- Not strongly marked
- How common
- Moderately common
- Connotation
- Matter-of-fact
- Usage feel
- Neutral and straightforward
Word Aura describes common impressions, not a measurement. Tone changes with sentence, speaker, relationship and situation.
More ways to use huff
- “He huffed and puffed as he made his way up the mountain.”verb
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Common Patterns and Combinations
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Dictionary data from Wiktionary via the Free Dictionary API. Simple meanings, combinations and word intelligence are built from verified reference data, no AI is used to load this page.