Green’s Dictionary of Slang

angry, bad-tempered; thus huffily adv.

1655		E. Gayton Wil Bagnals Ghost 9: The huffy puffy Stewards words, / Were to our Clerke like any swords.
1688		J. Crowne City Politicks I ii: Since he is so huffy and stormy, I’ll be a storm.
1790		York Dialogue between Ned and Harry 5: She was so very coy and huffish, and told me she did not know what I meant.
1815		D. Humphreys Yankey in England 88: You needn’t be quite so huffy, Mister!
1825		J. Neal Brother Jonathan II 43: A leetle on the huffy order, I guess! ain’t you?
1837		A. Greene Glance at N.Y. II ii: La! Mose, don’t get huffy ’cause I mentioned him.
1848		B.A. Baker Glance at N.Y. [play script] Lize: La! Mose, don’t get huffy ’cause I mentioned him.
1852		H.B. Stowe Uncle Tom’s Cabin 106: I [...] actually was so cruel as to restrict him to one dozen of my cambric handkerchiefs. Dolph was particularly huffy about it, and I had to talk to him like a father to bring him round.
1863		in R.G. Carter Four Brothers in Blue (1978) 2 Feb. 233: I would do all I could to discourage it, and even get them ‘huffy’.
1873		R. Broughton Nancy III 202: You were huffy, then!
1887		G. Devol Forty Years a Gambler 44: I then acted a little huffy (as he thought) and offered to bet him $1,000.
1898		H.B. Vogel Maori Maid 152: Don’t get huffy, Archie.
1905		J.M. Synge Well of the Saints Act I: You’re not huffy with myself.
1912		Bulletin (Sydney) 22 Aug. 10/2: After two tries the Law finally decided that if the visitor had not been so huffy the trouble wouldn’t have happened.
1925		A. Christie Secret of Chimneys (1956) 223: I say, don’t be huffy.
1931		D. Runyon ‘Breach of Promise’ in Runyon on Broadway (1954) 18: She will be very huffy about anybody suing me for breach of promise.
1940		S. Longstreet Decade 318: No use getting huffy about it.
1952		J. Jones From Here to Eternity (1998) 422: Okay. Dont get huffy.
1960		P. Rabe Murder Me for Nickels (2004) 80: Christ. You are huffy today.
1972		O. Hawkins Ghetto Sketches 241: Mayflower throws his nose up in a huffy way. ‘I think you must be confused.’.
1982		N. Keesing Lily on the Dustbin 96: This response makes mum huffy.
1993		H, Mantel ‘Harley St’ in Assassination of Thatcher (2014) 96: ‘Oh look, doctor! Your hands are dirty.’ He’ll look huffy, hold them up.
1999		Guardian Guide 12–18 June 98: The WB [...] the channel of youth, is now made to look sullen and huffy.
2001		‘John le Carré’ Constant Gardener 473: They get huffy when it’s suggested to them that the old place ticks over rather better when they’re not in it.
2011		D.R. Pollock Devil All the Time 35: She’d gotten huffy with him again this morning.
2012		(con. 1980s) I. Welsh Skagboys 255: She goes aw that fuckin ice-cauld, frigid, huffy wey, but fuck her.
2012		A. Prentice ‘The Break’ in Crime Factory: Hard Labour [ebook] You being huffy to an old man?
2015		I. Welsh Decent Ride 211: Now Hank’s gittin huffy n eh turns oan Malky.
2023		A. Parks To Die in June 61: ‘C’mon, Cuthbert, don’t get all huffy on me’.