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. Shakspeare, Merry Wives, v. 5. What . . . a puffed man. Ibid. (1598), 2 Hen. IV, v. 3. I think a' be, but goodman Puff of Barson.
1610. Jonson, Alchemist, ii. 1. Mam. That is his fire-drake, His Lungs . . . he that puffs his coals . . . Ibid. Lungs . . . I will restore thee thy complexion, Puffe.
1647. Fletcher, Nice Valour, iv. 1. Why I confess at my wife's instigation once (As women love these herald's kickshaws naturally) I bought em; but what are they, think you? Puffs.
1729. Hearne, Diary, 7 Sep. I remember Bale's book is puff'd with other lyes.
1731. St. James's Evg. 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, Burlesque Homer, 157. Tho' we, by Jove, and I'm no puffer, By the comparison can't suffer.
1779. Sheridan, 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, 1. 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 [London and Westminster Review, April]. Like newspaper puffery, which is an evidence of over population.
1850. 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. London Miscellany, 5 May, 201. He said he had been in the habit of frequenting mock auctions . . . They had a barker to entice people in, and then confederates or puffers would say to the person looking at the article 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."
