puerperal 
mediately before or after childtiirth. Puerperal ec- 
lampila, puerperal convulsions. Puerperal fever. See 
.'rirri. puerperal insanity, insanity occurring during 
and caused by tin- puerperal state or during lactation. 
Puerperal septlcemla, s'-ptio mi:i following childbirth; 
puci jicral fever Puerperal state, the state of a woman 
in aitd Immediately following childbirth. 
puerperally (piW'r'pe-ral-i), adr. From puer- 
peral fever or disorders connected with child- 
birtli. 
puerperium (pu-cr-pe'ri-iim), . [L., child- 
birth: mftttrperf.] The puerperal state. 
puerperous (|>u-er pe-rus), . [< L. pvcrpera, 
bringing forth, a parturient woman: see pner- 
peral.] Puerperal; lying-in. 
puerpery (pu-er'pe-ri), n. [< L. puerperium, 
childbirth. < pveiyera, bringing forth, a partu- 
rient woman: see puerperal.'} The puerperal 
state. Lancet, No. 3475, p. 750. 
puet (pu'et), n. A variant of petcit (a). 
The poor fish have enemies enough, . . . as otters, . . . 
the cormorant, . . . thetrnrf, . . . and the crabber. 
/. Walton, Complete Angler, L 2. 
puff (puf), v. [< ME. puffen, blow, = D.puffen, 
puff, blow up, boast, = MLG. puffen = Or. puf- 
fen, buffen, puff, pop, = Dan. puffe, pop, = 8w. 
puffa, crack, push; cf. P. pouffer, burst out 
laughing, bouffer, intr. swell, swell out, puff, 
puff up, rise (as bread), stuff, gorge, tr. blow up, 
Imufflr, intr., swell, be puffed up, OF. huffier, 
puff, = It.biiffarc, puff; W. pwffio, come in puffs; 
connected with the noun and interj. jittjf, ult. 
imitative of a quick explosive sound. Cf. ft".^ 2 .] 
1. intrant. 1. To blow with quick, intermittent 
blasts; emit a whiff, as of wind, air, or smoke. 
Like foggy south p\i/inu with wind and rain. 
Shale., As you Like it, iii. 5. 50. 
A new coal is not to be cast on the nitre till the detona- 
tion be either quite or almost altogether ended ; unless it 
chance that the Miffing matter do blow the coal too soon 
out of the crucible. Boyle, I'hysico-Chymlcal Essay, -. 
Our postilions were sitting silently upon the bench, and 
we followed their example, lit our pipes, and puffed away. 
B. Taylor, Northern Travel, p. Sfl. 
Where boys and girls pursued their sports, 
A locomotive puffit and snorts, 
And gets my malediction. 
f. Locker, Bramble-Rise. 
2. To blow, as an expression of scorn or con- 
tempt; snort; sneer. 
As for all his enemies, he jmffflh at them. ft. x. 5. 
It Is really to defy heaven, to puff at damnation, and to 
hid Omnipotence do its worst. Smith. 
3. To breathe with agitation, as after violent 
exertion. 
Von are a fellow dares not fight, 
Ilut spit and 1'iif and make a noise, whilst 
Your trembling hand draws out your sword. 
Hi a a. and l-'t . Honest Man's fortune, ii 
Sir Timothy, who makes love to my friend's eldest daugh- 
ter, came in amongst uttpuffiny and blowing, as if he had 
been very much out of breath. 
Addition, Sir Timothy Tittle. 
4t. To act or move with flurry and a swelling, 
bustling appearance ; assume importance. 
Then came brave Glory jrufftny by 
In silks Uiat whistled, who but he! 
Q. Uerbert, The Temple. 
II. trail*. 1. To blow; send forth in quick 
short blasts or whiffs; drive with a blast. 
Piries and plomtrees were puffed to the erthe. 
In ensaniple, ge segges, ,>< bhulden do the bettere. 
Pirn I'lmman (B), v. 16. 
Not three centuries have elapsed since knightly Raleigh 
jntfftd its jtohacco's| fumes into the astonished eyes of 
Hpenser and >shakes|eare. 
B. Taylor, Lands of the Saracen, p. 179. 
A radical in thought, he puffed awny 
With shrewd contempt the dust of usage gray. 
l.ini-M, Kitz Adam's Story. 
2. To draw smoke through, or send out smoke 
from. 
Here the old hnrgher would sit In perfect silence, pufftiuj 
his pipe, looking in the Are with half-shut eyes, and think- 
ing of nothing for hours together. 
Jrviny, Knickerbocker, p. 168. 
3. To fill, inflate, or expand with breath or air, 
anil figuratively with pride, vanity, conceit, etc.; 
swell: frequently with up: as, puffed up with 
success; puffed with ambition. 
Ilut generally the high stile is disgraced and made fool- 
ish and ridiculous by all wordes affected, counterfalt, and 
puffed rp, as it were a wlndball carrying more countenance 
then matter. I'utlniham, Arte of Kng. I'oesle, p. 128. 
Have I not heard the sea, pufd tin with wind*, 
Hue like an angry boar chafed with sweat? 
SAot., T. c,l the s., L i. 202. 
Wind* praise 
And puffin-i hopes of her aspiring sons. 
B. J.m*m, Sejanus. II. 2. 
Yet dlil this Royalty not puf his heart 
Too high to bin grand .Sovereign's Will to bow. 
J. Beaumont, Psyche, I. W. 
Then lies the port : the venel pu/i her sail : 
There (loom the dark broad seas. Tenxntm, llraaea. 
4834 
4. To praise with exaggeration ; give undue or 
servile praise t<>. 
This starving public then through the medium of 
posters, newspaper advertisement*, men in cardboard ex- 
tinguishers, and other modes of legitimate puffing had 
been informed that Its cravings were at last to he satisfied, 
in a grand, new, original melodrama called Pope ('lenient, 
or the Cardinal's Collapse. 
Whyte Melville, White Rose, II. xxvili. 
A man may be puffed and belauded, envied, ridiculed, 
counted upon as a tool, and fallen in love with, or at least 
selected as a future husband, and yet remain virtually un- 
known. Ueurye Eliot, Middleman:!), xv. 
Steele puffed, him |Estcourt] in the Spectator, and wept 
over his decease In the same periodical. 
AMon, Social Life in Reign of Queen Anne, II. 19. 
puff (puf), n. [< ME. u/ = D. pof, bof= MLG. 
puf = G. puff= Sw. Dan. puf, a puff; OF. pout', 
P. pouf, a kind of head-dress, a low seat or ot- 
toman, a puff (advertisement); 'W.pwff, a puff; 
ult. imitative: see puff, ?.] 1. A sharp, forci- 
ble blast; a whiff; a sudden emission, as of air 
from the mouth, or smoke from the stack of an 
engine; also, as much as is suddenly so emit- 
ted at one time. 
For not one puffe of winde there did appeare. 
Speraer,. Q., II. xii. . 
The young Cardinal of Guise died, being st ruck down by 
the 1'iif nl a Cannon-bullet, which put him in a burning 
Fever. Hou-ett, Letters, 1. ill. 0. 
At length a jntffot northern wind 
Did blow him to the land. 
Young Bearmll (Child's Ballads, IV. 303). 
2. A puffball. 3. An inflated, swollen, light, 
fluffy, or porous thing or part, (a) In drernnatimj, 
a strip of some fabric gathered and sewed down on both 
edges, but left full in the middle. 
Long Puffe* of Yellow and Blcwe Sarcenet rising vp be- 
twixt the Panes, besides Codpieces of the like colours. 
Corijat, Crudities, I. 41, slg. E. 
The duchess wears a fine gauze dress, trimmed with pit/if 
and rosettes of satin. The Century, XXXIX. :!.".. 
(l>) A light, porous, spongy, or friable cake, generally filled 
with preserve or the like : as, eream-j>u/fa ; jam-j>M$i. 
"Tom," said .Mamie, as they sat on the boughs of the 
elder-tree, eating their jam puff*, "shall you run away to- 
morrow?" Oetinje Eliot, Mill on the Floss, i. tt. 
4. An implement consisting of swan's down or 
a wad of flossy or loose texture, used for apply- 
ing powder to the hair or skin. See poirdtr- 
puff. 5. Exaggerated or undue praise uttered 
or written from an interested point of view; es- 
pecially. a written commendation of a book, an 
actor's or a singer's performance, a tradesman's 
goods, or the like. 
My American puff* I would willingly burn all 
(They're all from one source, monthly, weekly, diurnul) 
To get but a kick from a transmarine journal ! 
Lowell, Fable for Critics. 
6. One who is puffed up; HII inflated, conceited 
person. 
The other, a strange arrogating puff, 
Both impudent anil ignorant enough. 
II. Jvnstin, Cynthia's Revets ill. " 
A very puff, a weak animal. Shirley, Love Tricks, li. 2. 
7. One who writes puffs. 8. A small vessel 
with minute openings for scattering liquid per- 
fumes. Her. deonje Ormxby, .lour. Brit. Ar- 
chseol. Ass., XXII. 404. 
puff (puf), inter). [See puff, r.] An exclama- 
tion of contempt or impatience. 
Puff! did not I take him nobly? 
Hi-mi. a Kit PI., King and No King, 1. 1. 
puff-adder (puf'ad'er), H. The largest and 
most venomous African serpent of the family 
f'iprriillf, Clothn ariftniift. It lies with Its body partly 
Immersed in the sand, its head only being exposed, so that 
pedestrians are liable to tread on it It is sluggish in its 
nature, and the Bushman will fearlessly put his foot on its 
neck, and then cut <>tf its head for the sake of its venom, 
with which he poisons his arrows. It is, when full-grown, 
from 4 to 5 feet long, and as thick as a man's arm. It is 
named from Its habit of puffing up the upper part of Its 
body when irritated. See cut under I'iprruur. Compare 
puffin 
open. See Fungi, Gatteromycttn, and l.ueoperdm; aee 
fL\wf*-balU,fnuitl,JuabaH, earthpuf, Donnta (with cut), 
blind- llarru, bliiuiman'n-buff. deil'it muff-box (under tieil\ 
deril't muff-box (under drnl), and cut under bandium.- 
Giant puffball, a fungus, Lycoprrdon giganlmm, which 
often grows to a large size, having been known to attain 
a diameter of 5 feet. It Is edible when voting, and the 
mature dry spores may be used to stanch slight wounds. 
puff-bird (puf'berd), n. Any fissirostral barbel 
of the American family Hurconiitte : so called 
from its habit of puffing up the plumage. See 
cut in preceding column, also oarbeti*, Burro, 
and cut under nun-bird. 
puff-box (puf 'boks), H. A box designed to con- 
tain toilet-powder and a puff. It is often made 
an ornamental article for the toilet-table. 
puffed (puft), a. [< puff + -fd 2 .] In contume, 
gathered up into rounded ridges, as a sleeve, 
or one leg of a pair 
of hose Puffed and. 
slashed armor, armor 
of the middle of the six- 
teenth century, in which 
the peculiar stuffed forms 
of the putted and slashed 
dresses of the time are 
imitated. 
puffer (puf'er), n. [< 
puff+-erl.~] 1. One 
who puffs; one who 
praises with exag- 
gerated and inter- 
ested commenda- 
tion. 2. One who 
attends a sale by 
auction for the pur- 
pose of raising the 
price and exciting 
the eagerness of bid- 
ders to the advan- 
tage of the seller. 
Also called bonnet 
and icliiti bonne/. 
I'pon the suspicion that the plaintiff was a yager, the 
question was put whether any tnifer* were present. 
Isird Chan. Eldnn (1808), Mason v. Armitage, 13 Ves. 
[25, 87. 
ruffing, it has been said, Is illegal, even if there be only 
one puffer. Knci/e. Brit., III. 60. 
3. A fish that swells or puffs up ; specifically, 
any member of cither of the plectognath fam- 
ilies Tctrodontiilif and Uiotlonfitlee, all of whose 
species, some eighty in number, have the habit 
of inflating themselves with air which they 
swallow; a swell-fish or globe-fish; a blower. 
The common puffer or swell-fish, fyhtrrnidf* inamlatu* 
or Telrodon htrgidun, is a goml example. The tamlior or 
smooth putTer is Latfofephalii*lteri<iatiiit. 1 he rough puffer 
is Chilinntfeferwt *ch<rpji or MeffwCrfeitfi See cuts under 
Diwltm, well-fati, and Tetrodontidfe. 
4. A porpoise or puffing-pig. 5. In treating, a 
vat in which linen and cotton cloth is cleansed 
by boiling; a bucking-keir. 
puffer-pipe (puf'er -pip), . In wearing, the 
central pipe of a bucking-keir, from the top of 
which water is discharged over the cloth. 
puffery (puf'er-i), n. [<p>iff+ -try.] System- 
atic puffing; extravagant praise. 
I have reviewed myself incessantly, 
Nay, made a contract with a kindred spirit 
For mutual Interchange of puffery. 
Gods ! how we blew each other ! 
W. K. Ayloun, Flrmillan. 
puff-fish (puf'fish), H. A puffer or swell-fish. 
puffily (puf'i-li), adr. In a puffy manner. 
puffin (puf 'in), n. [Said to be so called from its 
puffed-out beak ; <puff+ -in, appar. a dim. ter- 
mination. The NL. I'lifKntin, also 1'upliinug. is 
fromE.] 1. A sea-parrot, colter-neb, or bottle- 
I'uffcd ami Slashr.l Co 
ll (puf- 
bal), n. Any one 
of various gaste- 
romycet ous fungi, 
especially of the 
genus l.i/ro/H'r- 
iloii : so called 
from their habit 
of puffing or Kiid- 
ilenly discharg- 
ing a cloud of 
spores when they 
are shaken or 
squeezed after 
the chamber in 
which the spore.; 
develop 
/r). 
Common Puffin If-'raffn Mia an tit .n. 
etl auk; a bird of the family Aleiilse and ^c- 
nus t'riiti-reulii or l.inuln. Sec these words. 
There are several species. The common puffin Is F. are- 
