buffer

noun

1. Someone or something that buffs (polishes and makes shiny).
2. Someone or something that buffs (polishes and makes shiny).
3. (Ireland, archaic, slang)A boxer.

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

4. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
5. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
6. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.

   “1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, https://archive.org/details/mikadootherplays00gilb The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer / To ride on a buffer / In Parliamentary trains.”

   “The underframe, which has been designed to take buffing loads of 200 tons both on the centre coupler and on the retractable side buffers, consists of two centre girders from which cantilevers project to support the solebars, which in turn carry the bodyside structure.”

   “Then, with a shock like a thousand goods trains crashing into a thousand pairs of buffers, the lips of rock closed.”

7. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.

   “Of course, I was not always right. I questioned the value of Crossrail (a scheme revived by Prescott after being scrapped by the Conservatives), suggesting wrongly that it may be "doomed to hit the buffers" […]. A dozen years later, I published my book on it, extolling the line's wonders. We are all allowed to change our minds.”

8. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
9. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
10. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
11. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
12. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.

    “I keep a savings buffer of three months' worth of living expenses.”

13. (figuratively)Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.

    “An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder strikes in the last two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take another purposeful stride towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight.”

14. (UK, slang)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.”

    “I happen to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when the Buffer arrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.”

15. (colloquial)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.”

    “Here, too, are Boots and Brewer, and the two other Buffers; each Buffer with a flower in his button-hole, his hair curled, and his gloves buttoned on tight, apparently come prepared, if anything had happened to the bridegroom, to be married instantly.”

    “I can’t expect two youngsters like you to find it much fun talking to an old buffer like me.”

16. (UK, dated, slang)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 […]”

adj

1. (comparative, form-of)Comparative form of buff: more buff.

verb

1. 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.”

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

   “Some games let you buffer jumps—if you hold the jump button mid-air, your character will jump as soon as they touch the ground.”

3. (intransitive, transitive)To store (data) in memory temporarily while it is awaiting processing.
4. To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.

name

1. A surname