faff

From a dialect word meaning "blow in gusts".

• IPA^(key): /fæf/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -æf

faff (plural faffs)

1. (British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand, slang) An overcomplicated task, especially one perceived as a waste of time.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:nuisance

   Adjusting this television is a bit of a faff.

   • 2007 November 27, Hadley Freeman, “Miaow!”, in The Guardian‎:

     God it must be a faff having to get nigh-on naked every time your bladder runneth over, and imagine how much worse it must be if you only have a 20-second break to run off stage to the loo.

   • 2011, Patrick Kingsley, “Life with the Queen Mum revealed”, in The Guardian‎:

     Breakfast in bed at the royal household is a massive faff. A page boy must carry the tray upstairs, but he's banned from actually serving it. So he leaves it on the floor by the bedroom door, whereupon a housemaid picks it up and knocks on said portal.

   • 2017, Andi Watson, Glister, →ISBN:

     The fuss and faff meant Christmas had long since been drained of any joy and excitement.

   • 2023 September 23, Tim Hayward, “Not so easy does it”, in FT Weekend, Life & Arts, page 19:

     The show is a carefully curated manifesto of “social success without faff”.

2. (typically in the phrase 'in a faff') A state of confused or frantic activity.

   Synonym: flap

   She's in a total faff about tonight's dinner party.

faff (third-person singular simple present faffs, present participle faffing, simple past and past participle faffed)

1. (British, Ireland, Australia, New Zealand) To waste time on an unproductive activity.

   Synonyms: arse around, (American) dick around

   • 2009, Steven Aitchison, 100 Ways to Develop Your Mind, page 131:

     Stop Faffing And Just Do It

From Middle High German pfaffe, from Old High German pfaffo, phapho, from Latin papa, from Byzantine Greek παπᾶς (papâs), from Koine Greek πάπας (pápas), from Ancient Greek πάππας (páppas). Cognate to German Pfaffe, Dutch paap. Doublet of baabost.

faff m (plural faffen)

1. (Luserna, Sette Comuni) priest

   De faffen luughent naach dar zéel bon lòiten.

   Priests heal people's souls.

(This etymology is missing or incomplete. Please add to it, or discuss it at the Etymology scriptorium.)

faff ?

1. (Luserna) lily (flower)

• “faff” in Martalar, Umberto Martello, Bellotto, Alfonso (1974) Dizionario della lingua Cimbra dei Sette Communi vicentini, 1st edition, Roana, Italy: Instituto di Cultura Cimbra A. Dal Pozzo
• Patuzzi, Umberto, ed., (2013) Luserna / Lusérn: Le nostre parole / Ünsarne börtar / Unsere Wörter [Our Words], Luserna, Italy: Comitato unitario delle isole linguistiche storiche germaniche in Italia / Einheitskomitee der historischen deutschen Sprachinseln in Italien