1725. New Cant. Dict., s. v. Buff, a Newgate Cant Word used in familiar Salutation as, How dost do, my Buff?
1748. Smollett, Roderick Random, ch. iv., p. 15. Mayhaps old buff has left my kinsman here his heir.
1764. Brydges, Homer Travest. (1797), II., 420. You seem afraid these buffs will flinch.
Buff it, verb (common).—1. To swear to; to adhere to a statement hard and fast; to stand firm. [Query from 'to bluff.'] To buff it is sometimes enlarged—to buff it home.
1812. J. H. Vaux, Flash Dict., s. v. Buff, To buff to a person or thing, is to swear to the identity of them.
1881. New York Slang Dictionary. Buffing it home is swearing point-blank to anything, about the same as bluffing it, making a bold stand on no backing.
2. (common.)—To strip; to bare oneself to the 'buff' or skin.
1851. Mayhew, London Labour and London Poor, II., p. 416. 'You had better buff it, Jim,' says I; but Jim wouldn't do it, and kept his trowsers on. Ibid, p. 417. So I locks the door, and buffs it, and forces myself up, etc.
In buff, phr. (common).—Naked; in a state of nudity. Among English equivalents are Abram (q.v.) and birthday suit (q.v.), but for all synonyms, see Nature's garb.
1602. Dekker, Satiro-Mastix. I go in stag, in buff.
1855. Notes and Queries, 1 S., xi., p. 467. We say of one in a state of nudity, 'he is in buff.'
To stand buff, verbal phr. (old).—To stand the brunt; to pay the piper; to endure without flinching. [From buff, an old pugilistic term for a blow.]
a. 1680. Butler, Hudibras's Epitaph. And for the good old cause stood buff 'Gainst many a bitter kick and cuff.
1697. Vanbrugh, Provoked Wife, I., i. Would my courage come up to a fourth part of my ill-nature, I'd stand buff to her relations, and thrust her out of doors.
1787. Fielding, The Miser, Act ii., Sc. 2. Love. How! rascal, is it you that abandon yourself to those intolerable extravagancies? Fred. I must even stand buff, and outface him.
1748. T. Dyche, Dictionary (5 ed.). To stand Buff (v.), to stand stoutly to a thing, to be resolute and unmoved, though the danger be great.
1761. Colman, Jealous Wife, V., i., 139. Stick close to my advice and you may stand buff to a tigress.
1822. Scott, Fortunes of Nigel, ch. xii. 'Stand buff against the reproach of thine over-tender conscience.'
Buff-Ball, subs. (vagrants').—A dancing party in which both sexes dance together naked. [From buff (q.v.), naked, + ball.] Cf., Ballum rancum.
1880. Greenwood, In Strange Company. The most favourite entertainment at this place is known as buff-ball, in which both sexes—innocent of clothing—madly join, stimulated with raw whiskey, and the music of a fiddle and a tin whistle.
Buffer, subs. (old).—1. A dog. [Considerable obscurity surrounds the origin of this term. It occurs in varying forms from 1567 down to the present time. Harman gives it as bufe (1567) and bufa (1573); Rowlands as buffa (1610); Head as bugher (1673); whilst in The Memorials of John Hall it first appears as buffer.] Synonymous terms will be found under Tike.
1567. Harman, Caveat (1814), p. 65. Bufa, a dogge.
1610. Rowlands, Martin Mark-all, p. 37 (H. Club's Repr., 1874). Buffa, a Dogge.
1714. Memoirs of John Hall (4 ed.), p. 11. Buffer, a Dog.
