Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. a blusterer, a bully.

1514		Skelton Agenst Garnesche ii line 16: Huf, a galante, Garnesche, loke on your comely cors!
1569–70		T. Preston Cambyses Three ruffians, Huff, Ruff, and Snuff.
1593		G. Harvey Pierce’s Supererogation 137: Huff, Ruff, and Snuffe, the three tame ruffians of the Church.
1635		H. Glapthorne Lady Mother III ii: Walke, walke, you and your Capain Huff to London.
1674		Head Canting Academy (2nd edn) 78: The Instruments in chief of a Bawds trade are an Hector or Huff which seems instead of the Gyant to defend her inchanted Castle from being violated.
1677		Behn Rover V i: See how this—Huff becomes—this Dammy—flare— / Which they at home may act, because they dare, / But—must with prudent Caution do elsewhere.
a.1687		‘Bully Whig’ in N. Thompson Choice Collection of 120 Loyal Songs 263: Tom once was Cock-a-hoop / Of all the Huffs in Town; / But now his Pride must stoop, / His Courage is pull'd down.
c.1698		B.E. Dict. Canting Crew n.p.: Huff a Bullying Fellow.
1700		T. Brown Amusements Serious and Comical in Works (1744) III 73: Every dunce of a quack is call’d a physician [...] every silly huff a captain.
1725		New Canting Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1737, 1759, 1760, 1776		Bailey Universal Etym. Eng. Dict. [as cit. c.1698].
1809		G. Andrewes Dict. Sl. and Cant.
1822		(con. early 17C) Sir W. Scott Fortunes of Nigel II 141: I remember the Huffs, the Muns, and the Tityre-tu’s by whom your grace’s ancestors and predecessors were advised. [Ibid.] 145: By spigot and barrel, / By bilbo and buff; /Thou art sworn to the quarrel / Of the blades of the huff.
1835		G. Kent Modern Flash Dict.
1848		Flash Dict. in Sinks of London Laid Open.

2. a bad temper; usu. as in a huff.

1591		Greene Second Part of Conny-Catching in Grosart (1881–3) X 101: Conny-catchers, those base excrements of dishonesty, they in their huffes report they have got one ([blank space]) I wil not bewray his name.
1599		H. Porter Two Angry Women of Abington E: And as to me thou saist, to him I said, But in a greater huffe, and hotter bloud.
1676		Etherege Man of Mode I i: Tax her with the next fop that comes into my head, and in a huff march away.
1688		T. Shadwell Squire of Alsatia III i: If you were not the brother to my dearest friend, I know what my honour would prompt me to [Walks in a huff].
1692		‘Taylors Resolution to be Reveng’d of these Petticoat Press-Masters’ in Euing Broadside Ballads No. 4: Welsh Shone’s in a huff, said that’s not enough.
1700		Farquhar Constant Couple II ii: I offer’d her fifty guineas, and she was in her airs presently, and flew away in a huff.
1710		Swift letter v 5 Oct. in Journal to Stella (1901) 28: Now you are in a huff because I tell you this.
c.1719		‘The Wanton Virgins Frightened’ in Farmer Merry Songs and Ballads (1897) I 223: Quoth the old Daddy, I was in a huff.
1754		J. Gay Rehearsal at Goatham I x: The Emperor, you see, is in a Huff.
1765		H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 56: No longer we tremble when France in a Huff, Swears she’ll give poor England a damn’d Blow.
1771		Smollett Humphrey Clinker (1925) I 140: He went away in a huff, at a minute’s warning.
1779		in F. Moore Songs and Ballads of the Amer. Revolution (1855) 263: Our brethren [...] Who quit their old friends in a huff.
1788		‘The Coughing Old Man’ Irish Songster 2: To him then I turn’d my back in a huff.
1803		Derby Mercury 11 Aug. 4/1: A rank Tyrant in Heart, / From Paris set out in a Huff / And most solemnly swore / [...] / He’d trim the poor Englishman’s Buff.
1812		Spirit of Irish Wit 6: He went off in a huff.
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 86: What a huff you’re at! I only axed a question.
1834		‘Randy Johnny!’ in Bang-Up Songster 9: In spite of all their huffs and cuffs, / He bedded every maid.
1840		R. Barham ‘The Wedding-Day’ in Ingoldsby Legends (1847) 223: If any young man [...] goes off to sea in a huff, / Depend on’t, my friends, that young man is a Muff!
1857		T. Hughes Tom Brown’s School-Days (1896) 270: ‘Well,’ said Tom, getting up in something as like a huff as he was capable of.
1867		Mark Lemon Golden Fetters I 163: He went off in a huff, cussing and swearing.
1873		R. Broughton Nancy II 92: I [...] stop talking in a huff.
1879		C.J. Kickham Knocknagow 348: Miss Grace was quite troubled to think that it was because he was ‘huffed’ by the way she ‘treated him’ that he left them so abruptly.
1880		Greenock Advertiser 15 June 4/1: Jem Brady went off in a huff.
1894		H. Lawson ‘Thin Lips and False Teeth’ in Roderick (1972) 241: She flounced off in a huff.
1907		Sun. Times (Perth) 20 Jan. 1/1: Both [damsels] are mashed on the curly-haired cyclist [and] the unsuccessful donah had an attack of ‘huff’.
1915		C.J. Dennis ‘The Stoush O’ Day’ in Songs of a Sentimental Bloke 29: An’ narked, the sun, ’is backer, in a huff, / Sneaks outer sight, red in the face wiv rage.
1921		Dos Passos Three Soldiers 319: ‘We must know each other better,’ she said. ‘I like you for going off in a huff.’.
1927		P. O’Donnell Islanders (1933) 98: It’s a quare ould grin he had on him, an’ be me sowl, Biddy, nobody noticed any huff on yerself.
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 173: If you refuse they drive off in a huff, talking to themselves.
1939		H. Miller Tropic of Capricorn (1964) 36: She went out in a huff taking the brats with her.
1943		Western Mail (Perth) 26 Aug. 3/1: I call him a ‘Yehudi’ (Jew). That is an insult to an Arab and he goes off in a huff.
1949		N. Algren Man with the Golden Arm 116: She’d gone off in such a high-wheeled huff.
1967		J. Orton Diaries (1986) 17 Apr. 138: He rang off in a great huff.
1975		A. Bleasdale Scully 69: I knew he’d be going off all in a huff.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 175: I play at being in the huff and swan off to get a paper.
1998		A. Warner Sopranos 285: Manda juss did a big huff out.
2000		N. Griffiths Grits 451: Ee went Sioned off in a huff befaw by callin er a racist cow.
2021		P. Papathanasiou Stoning 117: ‘[S]tomping away ina grim huff’.

3. a dodge or trick.

1860		Hotten Dict. of Modern Sl. etc. (2nd edn).
1864, 1867, 1870		Hotten Sl. Dict.
1873		Sl. Dict.

4. (US drugs) an inhalant,, an act of inhalation.

1994		G. Pelecanos Shoedog 193: He had rubbed his face [...] before deciding to pour some glue into the brown bag and have a huff.
2002		Franklin Favorite (KY) 21 Nov. 17/2: Some slang terms for inhalants are glue, kick, bang, sniff, huff, poppers, whippets and Texas shoe shine.

5. see huffcap n.