Mech. [app. f. BUFF v.1 3 + -ER (cf. BUFFING vbl. sb.1).]
1. A mechanical apparatus for deadening the force of a concussion; as a round plate or cushion (usually supported by a strong spring) fixed in pairs at the front and back of railway carriages or engines, or on the face of a terminal wall of a line railway. Extended also to the solid projecting beam-ends of railway trucks, etc., and strong bars across sidings, which sustain without deadening the concussion. (Formerly called also buffing apparatus: see BUFFING vbl. sb.1)
1835. Specif. Church’s Patent, No. 6791. 12 The buffers supported by metal springs x and air cylinder.
1841. Penny Cycl., XIX. 258/2. Buffers or discs of wood or metal, sometimes covered with cushions.
1860. Tyndall, Glac., I. § 2. 9. The shock … is harmless when distributed over the interval necessary for the pushing in of the buffer.
1867. Pall Mall Gaz., 27 July, 9. He jumped on to a buffer of a carriage.
2. fig. Also attrib.
1858. Gen. P. Thompson, Audi Alt., I. xliv. 170. With no excuse offered as a buffer against the manifest absurdity.
1870. Lowell, Among My Books, Ser. II. (1873), 313. A sense of humor … may have served as a buffer against the … shock of disappointment.
1883. Daily News, 27 July, 5/1. John Dunn rules the ‘buffer’ State—to borrow a simile from Indo-Afghan politics—which lies between Natal and the late King’s dominion.
3. attrib. and comb., as buffer-frame, -head, -plate, -rod, -spring; buffer-bar, cross-piece (on an engine, etc.) carrying the buffers; -beam.
1883. N. E. Railw. Specifications, 40. Also, the fixing of 6 Buffers, and *Buffer-frames, at ends of Sidings.
1835. Specif. Bergin’s Patent, No. 6781. Within each *buffer head is a bar of iron.
1863. Morning Star, 13 Aug. The *buffer rod, which was … solid iron, was broken away.
1862. Smiles, Engineers, III. 282. The necessity for … preventing hard bumping of the carriage-ends … hence the contrivance of *buffer-springs.
