buff, n.¹ — Green’s Dictionary of Slang

buff n.¹

[the colour of ‘white’ flesh, thus a man (see cite 1715)]

the bare skin; usu. as in (the) buff, naked; buff, to be naked.

1602		Dekker Satiromastix III i: Cub, doe not scorne mee because I goe in Stage, in Buffe.
1637–41		Chapman Revenge for Honour I i: Then for accoutrements you wear the buff.
1638		T. Overbury ‘A Sergeant’ His Wife with New Characters n.p.: His habit is a long Gowne, made at first to cover his knavery, but that growing too monstrous, hee now goes in Buffe: his Conscience and that, being both cut out of one Hide.
c.1642		T. Killigrew Parson’s Wedding (1664) V iv: Lend me your cloak then, to appear more decent; you’d not ha’ me present Epilogue in Buff, whoreson Dunce, with a red nose?
1654		Mercurius Fumigosus 22 25 Oct.–1 Nov. 190: A lusty Book-binder (being one of the City Knockers) [...] would undertake to bind for a Mistriss a Two-leav’d Horn-book in Buff, double guilt.
1665		‘R.M.’ Scarronides 6: Most men say they were in Buffs.
1672		J. Phillips Maronides (1678) VI 13: Many a rap on pate full rough, / Many a slash quite through thy buff.
1715		‘Nickydemus Ninnyhammer’ Homer in a nut-shell 31: Why how now, Buff, and what’s the clutter? / What’s here to do? What is’t you mutter?
1719		in D’Urfey Pills to Purge Melancholy II 13: For they were Cloathed in all their Buff.
1737		H. Carey Dragon of Wantley II i: I’ll work his Buff, if ever I come near him.
1749		H. Fitzcotton (trans.) Homer’s Iliad 38: If you perplex me with your stuff – All that are here shan’t save your buff.
1759		‘Hot Stuff’ in Silber Songs of Independence (1973) 146: ‘If you please, Madam Abbess, a word with your nuns!’ / Each soldier shall enter the convent in buff, / And then, never fear, we will give them Hot Stuff!
1760		C. Johnston Chrysal II 235: ‘Poor devils must have done duty in their buff.’ ‘And the properest dress for them, [...] who wants any clothes in such a climate as this?’.
1765		H. Howard Choice Spirits Museum 65: Wanton Harlots dance in Buff.
1772		Bridges Burlesque Homer (3rd edn) 297: If paris had not got enough / Of trimming her bewitching buff, / But longs to switch the gipsey still.
c.1786		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue ms. additions n.p.: Buff. All In Buff, or Stript in Buff stripd naked from the waste upwards.
1788		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (2nd edn) n.p.: all in buff stript to the skin, stark naked.
c.1790		‘Breeches’ Luke Caffrey’s Gost 8: Had I my charmer quite undressed [...] With naked buff and patch quite rough.
1794		Sporting Mag. June IV 175/2: The ladies came to the field loosely attired [...] and before the combat was over, these fair ones were nearly in buff.
1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue (3rd edn) n.p.: All in buff; stript to the skin, stark naked.
1797		M. Leeson Memoirs (1995) III 146: The wanton gambols of a Mr T--s and a Miss Mary Russel [...] performed in the true Humphrey and Mendoza stile – buff to buff.
1801		C. Dibdin Yngr Song Smith 47: While, to keep up the charter, our belles dress in buff.
c.1805		‘Little Farthing Rush-light’ Jovial Songster 94: Cook, coachee, men and maids, very near all in buff.
1815		H.H. Brackenridge Modern Chivalry (1937) Pt I Vol. I Bk IV 760: What, said he [...] is it in imitation of your pupils, that you are here in your bare buff?
c.1820		‘Naked Truth’ in C. Hindley Curiosities of Street Lit. (1871) 12: The young hero [...] stripped himself to the buff.
1821		Chester Courant 20 Nov. 4/3: When a man appears to advantage out of his clothes, he is said to buff well .
1834		‘Blowen’s Ball’ in Bang-Up Songster 6: They strip’t themselves all into buff.
1841		‘One-Horse Chay’ in Dublin Comic Songster 364: When our pair were soused enough, / And returning in the buff.
1846		Swell’s Night Guide 113/2: Birthday suit, stark naked, in buff, Adamized.
1852		G.C. Mundy Our Antipodes II 385: Pretty young girls, dressed in mats and blankets [...] and native ‘buff,’ manifested, without reserve.
1863		‘Gathering of the Mahonys’ Donnybrook-Fair Comic Songster 14: A boy of the right kind of stuff / Who’d fight till the black blood came bubbling / Like buttermilk out of his buff!
1872		C. King Mountaineering in Sierra Nevada (1997) 191: We stretched a rope [...] before a huge fire in an open chimney, then, stripping ourselves to the buff, we hung up our steaming clothes.
1881		Sins of the Cities of the Plain 16: We were soon stripped to the buff.
1890		Bulletin (Sydney) 5 July 18/1: O’Conner stripped to the buff, Stanbury rowed in a guernsey. The Cornstalk looked fit and hearty.
1889		Times-Democrat (New Orleans, LA) 9 July 3/6: Prize Ring Slang [...] ‘buff,’ the bare skin.
1900		A.H. Lewis ‘Humming Bird’ Sandburrs 27: Foist dey shucks d’ mark – peel off his make-up down to d’ buff.
1911		J. Masefield Everlasting Mercy 40: By God, he’s stripped down to his buff.
1919		(?) H. Lawson ‘Reformation of Johnson’ in Roderick (1972) 850: And with some dramatic effect, too; especially if he did it [i.e. hanged himself] in the buff.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 53: They stripped to the buff in one room.
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 126: I came upon a bothy [...] where were navvies stripped to the buff washing their shirts.
1947		D. Davin For the Rest of Our Lives 111: You’d better strip to the buff. I’ve got a clean shirt for you.
1958		D. Stivens Scholarly Mouse and other Tales 47: Swimming is best in the buff.
1966		Trimble 5000 Adult Sex Words and Phrases.
1970		A. Sillitoe Start in Life (1979) 182: There was a striptease joint where men peeled off to the buff in some corny act or other.
1974		J. Lahr Hot to Trot 238: He and ‘Wads’ have put out their answer to the Pirelli calendar – Boys in the Buff.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 198: No man [...] can take you seriously in the buff.
1998		I. Welsh Filth 51: I try to have a wank, attempting to picture [...] Amanda Drummond, in the buff.
2000		Observer Rev. 11 June 16: The sight of Keith Chegwin in the buff.
2014		T. Black Artefacts of the Dead [ebook] I’ll drag you out in the buff and show the world that skanky arse!
2023		(con. 1962) J. Ellroy Enchanters 335: They stood by the bed and peeled. They’re in the buff.

In compounds

buff-ball (n.) [guests are soon in the buff]

a dance attended by prostitutes; thus, de facto, an orgy.

1873

J. Greenwood In Strange Company 26: The most favourite entertainment at this place is known as a ‘buff-ball,’ in which both sexes – innocent of clothing – madly join, stimulated with raw whisky and the music of a fiddle and a tin whistle.

buff-steppered (adj.)

bare-footed.

1859

G.A. Sala Gaslight and Daylight 354: Look at my trotters [...] they’re hard as bricks. Go buff-steppered – that’s the game.

buff n.1

In compounds

buff n.¹