buffer

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to add a buffer to a solution

   I buffered the saline solution so it would not burn my eyes.

2. 2
   verb

   to protect from impact

   I buffered the child from the effects of their parents' gambling.

3. 3
   noun

   A boxer.

   Such a buffer as Donnelly, / Ereland never again will see.

4. 4
   noun

   The chief boatswain's mate.

   He decided to run for president of the POs' Mess against the Buffer, Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.

5. 5
   verb

   To use a buffer or buffers; to isolate or minimize the effects of one thing on another.

   The electronic apparatus is designed to buffer up the sorted wagons in the sidings at a speed not exceeding 4.7 m.p.h.—a particularly important provision in this yard, with its substantial traffic in whisky.

6. 6
   noun

   A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.

   Lastly, the looking-glass reflects Boots and Brewer, and two other stuffed Buffers interposed between the rest of the company and possible accidents.

7. 7
   noun

   A dog.

   Who does not remember that adorable little dog, and that last Christmas season at Olympia, when the Whimmy we had all loved had been dead a month or so, and his buffer ran disconsolately round the circus, pining […]

8. 8
   noun

   an implement consisting of soft material mounted on a block

Etymology

Agent noun from obsolete verb buff (“make a dull sound when struck”) (mid-16c.), from Old French buffe (“blow”). The “boatswain's mate” sense is said to be popularly explained by the mate being a “buffer”, that is intermediary, between officers and men, but various other explanations have also been proposed.