Puff

subs. (old: now colloquial).—1.  A sham; an impostor; (2) false praise: also PUFFING and PUFFERY (see quots. 1732 and 1779). Whence (3) a decoy: as a critic who extols a book or a play from interested motives; a mock-bidder, or RUNNER-UP (q.v.) of prices at auctions; or a gambler’s confederate or BONNET (q.v.): also PUFFER (BAILEY, 1728); (GROSE, 1785). As adj. (also PUFFED) = fat; and as verb. (also PUFF UP) = to blow, to bloat, to fill with wind, falsehood, conceit: whilst PUFF-WORKER (American) = a penny-a-liner making a speciality of theatrical paragraphs.

  1596.  SHAKESPEARE, Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5. What … a PUFFED man. Ibid. (1598), 2 Henry IV., v. 3. I think a’ be, but goodman PUFF of Barson.

  1610.  JONSON, The Alchemist, ii. 1.

  1647.  FLETCHER, The Nice Valour, iv. 1.

  1729.  HEARNE, Diary, 7 Sept. I remember Bale’s book is PUFF’D with other lyes.

  1731.  St. James’s Evening Post, ‘List of Officers attached to Gaming-houses.’ … 4. Two PUFFS, who have money given them to play with. 5. A ‘Clerk’ who is a check upon the PUFFS to see that they sink none of the money given them to play with. 6. A “Squib” who is a PUFF of a lower rank, who serves at half salary while he is learning to deal.

  1732.  Weekly Register, 27 May. PUFF has become a cant word, signifying the applause set forth by writers … to increase the reputation and sale of a book, and is an excellent stratagem to excite the curiosity of gentle readers.

  1749.  SMOLLETT, Gil Blas [ROUTLEDGE], 79. If I had a mind to PUFF my vices into virtues, I might call this sloth of mine a philosophical indifference. Ibid. (1751), Peregrine Pickle, xciii. This science, which is known by the vulgar appellation of PUFFING, they carried to such a pitch of finesse, that an author very often wrote an abusive answer to his own performance, in order to inflame the curiosity of the town, by which it had been overlooked.

  1754.  The World, No. 100. I hope that none … will … suspect me of being a hired and interested PUFF of this work.

  1772.  BRIDGES, A Burlesque Translation of Homer, 157.

  1779.  SHERIDAN, The Critic, i. 2. Puff. I am, sir, a practitioner in panegyric, or, to speak more plainly, a professor of the art of PUFFING.… ’Twas I first taught [auctioneers] to crowd their advertisements with panegyrical superlatives, each epithet rising above the other, like the bidders in their own auction rooms…. PUFFING is of various sorts; the principal are the PUFF direct, the PUFF preliminary, the PUFF collateral, the PUFF collusive, and the PUFF oblique, or PUFF by implication.

  1806.  ELDON, ‘Mason v. Armitage,’ 13 Ves., 25, 37. Upon the suspicion that the plaintiff was a PUFFER, the question was put whether any PUFFERS were present.

  1833.  CARLYLE, Sartor Resartus, I. ii. At an epoch when PUFFERY and quackery have reached a height unexampled in the annals of mankind.

  1836.  MARRYAT, Japhet, xxxiv. They were very pretty, amiable girls, and required no PUFFING on the part of her ladyship.

  1839.  MARTINEAU, ‘Literary Lionism,’ in London and Westminster Review, April. Like newspaper PUFFERY, which is an evidence of over population.

  1850.  C. KINGSLEY, Alton Locke, v. They wouldn’t go home from sermon to sand the sugar, and put sloe-leaves in the tea, and send out lying PUFFS of their vamped-up goods.

  1866.  The London Miscellany, 5 May, 201, 1, ‘London Revelations.’ He said he had been in the habit of frequenting ‘mock auctions.’… They generally had what was called a ‘barker’ at the door to entice people in, and then the confederates or ‘PUFFERS’ would say to the person who might be looking at the article put up for sale, “Ah! that is a fine watch (or whatever it might be); I should think that is worth a good deal; if I were you I’d buy it.”

  1870.  L. OLIPHANT, Piccadilly, v. 188. Is it not enough to PUFF your dinner-parties in the public journals at so much a ‘notice.’

  1872.  Daily Telegraph, 30 Nov. Cicero lays it down that a seller has no right to employ a PUFFER to raise prices. Ibid. With very few exceptions, the bona-fide private bidder has not the slightest chance in a sale-room against the PUFFER and the dealers.

  1876.  C. HINDLEY, ed. The Life and Adventures of a Cheap Jack, 217. We … often acted as ‘PUFFERS’ or ‘bonnets’ to give him a leg up.

  1884.  Graphic, 27 Dec., 659, 1. It is rather surprising that PUFFERY as a fine art should have made so little progress.

  1888.  New York Mercury, 21 July. Every professional … is afflicted with an unquenchable thirst for newspaper publicity, hence press paragraphers, or … PUFF-WORKERS … do a thriving trade.

  1893.  Westminster Gazette, 20 Feb., 3, 1. He is one of our finest actors, yet has never reached the prominence of his rivals, because he has been almost quixotish in avoiding the PUFF direct or indirect.

  1899.  R. WHITEING, No. 5 John Street, v. It ain’t worth while to PUFF ’er UP abaht it.

  3.  (tramps’).—A sodomist.

  4.  (common).—The breath: whence TO PUFF AND BLOW = to gasp; OUT OF PUFF = winded; PUFF-GUTS = a fat man; a JELLY-BELLY (q.v.).—GROSE (1785). Also (tailors’) = life; existence: e.g., ‘Never in one’s PUFF’; THE COP OF ONE’S PUFF = the copestone of one’s life.

  c. 1777.  Kilmainham Minit [Ireland Sixty Years Ago, 88].

  1886–96.  MARSHALL, ‘Pomes’ from the Pink ’Un [‘The Age of Love’], 26. He’s the winner right enough! It’s the one sole snip of a lifetime—simply THE COP OF ONE’S PUFF.

  TO PUFF THE GLIM, verb. phr. (horse-copers’).—See quot.

  1891.  Tit-Bits, 11 April. Old horses are rejuvenated [by] PUFFING THE GLIM, that is, filling up the hollows … found above all old horses’ eyes, by pricking the skin and blowing air into the loose tissues underneath.