buffet

Inherited from Middle English buffet (“stool”), from Middle French buffet (“side table”), from Old French buffet, of unknown origin. The modern pronunciation is remodelled after modern French buffet.

• beaufet (archaic)

• (UK) enPR: bo͝o'fā, bŭ'fā; IPA^(key): /ˈbʊf.eɪ/, /ˈbʌf.eɪ/
• (US) enPR: bəfā', IPA^(key): /bəˈfeɪ/, /bʌˈfeɪ/

• Audio (US):

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• (Indic) IPA^(key): /bəˈfe/, /ˈbʊf.e/
• Rhymes: (US) -eɪ

buffet (plural buffets)

1. A counter or sideboard from which food and drinks are served or may be bought.

   Synonyms: sideboard, smorgasbord, (obsolete) cupboard

   • 1909 September 9, Archibald Marshall [pseudonym; Arthur Hammond Marshall], “A Court Ball”, in The Squire’s Daughter, London: Methuen & Co. […], →OCLC, page 9:

     They stayed together during three dances, went out on to the terrace, explored wherever they were permitted to explore, paid two visits to the buffet, and enjoyed themselves much in the same way as if they had been school-children surreptitiously breaking loose from an assembly of grown-ups.

2. Food laid out in this way, to which diners serve themselves.

   Synonyms: buffet meal, smorgasbord

   We'll be serving supper buffet style.

   • 1992, Neal Stephenson, Snow Crash, page 312:

     "We got a big buffet coming up soon. Bacon, eggs, fresh fruit you wouldn't believe."

3. A small low stool; a hassock.

• → Japanese: ビュッフェ (byuffe)
• → Korean: 뷔페 (bwipe)

From Middle English buffet (“buffet”), from Old French buffet, diminutive of buffe, cognate with Italian buffetto. See buffer, buffoon, and compare German puffen (“to jostle, to hustle”).

• enPR: bŭfʹĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈbʌf.ɪt/, /ˈbʌf.ət/

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buffet (countable and uncountable, plural buffets)

1. (countable) A blow or cuff with or as if with the hand, or by any other solid object or the wind.

   Synonyms: blow, (by any solid object) collision, (with the hand) cuff

   • 1805, Walter Scott, “(please specify the page)”, in The Lay of the Last Minstrel: A Poem, London: […] [James Ballantyne] for Longman, Hurst, Rees, and Orme, […], and A[rchibald] Constable and Co., […], →OCLC:

     On his cheek a buffet fell.

   • October 30, 1795, Edmund Burke, letter to Lord Auckland

     those planks of tough and hardy oak that used for years to brave the buffets of the Bay of Biscay

   • 1960, P. G. Wodehouse, Jeeves in the Offing, chapter VII and XIV:

     Kipper stood blinking, as I had sometimes seen him do at the boxing tourneys in which he indulged when in receipt of a shrewd buffet on some tender spot like the tip of the nose.

2. (aviation, uncountable) The vibration of an aircraft when flying in or approaching a stall, caused by separation of airflow from the aircraft's wings.
   • 1979 December 21, National Transportation Safety Board, “Aircraft and Flightcrew Performance”, in Aircraft Accident Report: American Airlines, Inc., DC-10-10, N110AA, Chicago-O'Hare International Airport, Chicago, Illinois, May 25, 1979‎^[1], archived from the original on 17 August 2022, page 54:

     The aircraft configuration was such that there was little or no warning of the stall onset. The inboard slats were extended, and therefore, the flow separation from the stall would be limited to the outboard segment of the left wing and would not be felt by the left horizontal stabilizer. There would be little or no buffet. The DFDR also indicated that there was some turbulence, which could have masked any aerodynamic buffeting. Since the roll to the left began at V₂ + 6 and since the pilots were aware that V₂ was well above the aircraft's stall speed, they probably did not suspect that the roll to the left indicated a stall. In fact, the roll probably confused them, especially since the stickshaker had not activated.

From Middle English buffeten, from Old French buffeter, from the noun (see above).

• enPR: bŭfʹĭt, IPA^(key): /ˈbʌf.ɪt/, /ˈbʌf.ət/

buffet (third-person singular simple present buffets, present participle buffeting or (rare) buffetting, simple past and past participle buffeted or (rare) buffetted)

1. (transitive) To strike with a buffet; to cuff; to slap.
   • 1611, The Holy Bible, […] (King James Version), London: […] Robert Barker, […], →OCLC, Matthew 26:67:

     They spit in his face and buffeted him.

2. (transitive, figurative) To aggressively challenge, denounce, or criticise.

   Synonym: batter

   • 1977 August 20, Robert Etherington, “John Horne Burns and His Enemies”, in Gay Community News, volume 5, number 7, page 10:

     Is Burns obscure because he was gay and therefore ignorable until the Gay Rights Movement began? Or does he largely deserve his neglect? An answer requires that one examine not only Burns' books, but also the critical environment in which he was much buffeted — which, we are told, drove him to an early grave.

   • 2013 May 23, Sarah Lyall, “British Leader’s Liberal Turn Sets Off a Rebellion in His Party”, in New York Times, retrieved 29 May 2013:

     Buffeted by criticism of his policy on Europe, battered by rebellion in the ranks over his bill to legalize same-sex marriage and wounded by the perception that he is supercilious, contemptuous and out of touch with mainstream Conservatism, Mr. Cameron earlier this week took the highly unusual step of sending a mass e-mail (or, as he called it, “a personal note”) to his party’s grass-roots members.

3. To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against.

   Synonym: batter

   to buffet the billows

   • 1726, William Broome, epistle to Elijah Fenton:

     The sudden hurricane in thunder roars, / Buffets the bark, and whirls it from the shores.

   • 1830, Joseph Plumb Martin, “Ch. I”, in A Narrative of Some of the Adventures, Dangers and Sufferings of a Revolutionary Soldier:

     [...] I buffetted heat and mosquetoes, and got the hay all up [...]

   • 1887, William Black, “A Keepsake”, in Sabina Zembra […], volume III, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., →OCLC, page 146:

     You are lucky fellows who can live in a dreamland of your own, instead of being buffeted about the world—

   • 1980, AA Book of British Villages, Drive Publications Ltd, page 288:

     Atlantic gales constantly buffet Morwenstow, whose seven hamlets together constitute Cornwall's most northerly parish. The village is dotted with trees moulded into weird shapes by the wind, and above the trees rise the vicarage chimneystacks resembling miniature church towers.

4. To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.
5. (intransitive) To struggle, contend; also in figurative or extended use: to move as if driven by force.
   • 2012, David Walliams [pseudonym; David Edward Williams], “Tug of War”, in Ratburger, London: HarperCollins Children’s Books, →ISBN, pages 200–201:

     Again the chirpy tone did nothing to pacify the woman holding on to her ankles. Soon Zoe was buffeting back and forward through the hole.

• buffet on Wikipedia.Wikipedia

• 蒲飛 / 蒲飞, 浦飛 / 浦飞, 步飛 / 步飞

From English buffet.

buffet

1. (Hong Kong Cantonese) buffet

   食buffet [Cantonese]  ―  sik⁶ pou⁶ fei¹ [Jyutping]  ―  to have a buffet meal

From French buffet.

• IPA^(key): /ˈbufeː/, [ˈbufe̞ː]
• IPA^(key): /ˈbyfeː/, [ˈbyfe̞ː]
• IPA^(key): /ˈbyfːeː/, [ˈbyfːe̞ː]
• IPA^(key): /ˈbufːetːi/, [ˈbufːe̞t̪ːi] (colloquial)
• Rhymes: -ufeː

buffet

1. buffet

The endings of the alternative, somewhat Finnicized forms buffetti and especially bufetti better fit the structure of Finnish.

Most Finns don't know that the letter t in the form buffet is silent (and that the letter u is pronounced [y]) and are not sure how to decline this form because no native Finnish nouns end in -et in the singular. They therefore consciously or unconsciously change the ending in the nominative to the more Finnish ending -tti in speaking, despite the fact that the French pronunciation (with [y] and silent t) is the only one listed in the Kielitoimiston sanakirja.

Some Finns have trouble pronouncing the sound [b] and many the sound [f], so the completely Finnicized form puhvetti is in fact widespread in speech even though the spelling buffetti is the most common.

• “buffet”, in Kielitoimiston sanakirja [Dictionary of Contemporary Finnish]‎^[2] (in Finnish) (online dictionary, continuously updated), Kotimaisten kielten keskuksen verkkojulkaisuja 35, Helsinki: Kotimaisten kielten tutkimuskeskus (Institute for the Languages of Finland), 2004–, retrieved 2 July 2023

Inherited from Middle French bufet (1150), from Old French bufet, of uncertain origin; possibly a Celtic borrowing. Compare Scottish Gaelic biadh (“food, sustenance”), buadha (“valuable, precious”).^[1][2] Or, according to the Digitized Treasury of the French Language, from an imitative source akin to bouffer (“to eat (in excess)”).

• IPA^(key): /by.fɛ/

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buffet m (plural buffets)

1. sideboard, dresser (a piece of furniture)

   Synonym: crédence

2. buffet (food)
3. (slang) belly

   Synonym: ventre

• “buffet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

• “buffet”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012

Unadapted borrowing from French buffet.

• IPA^(key): /bufˈfɛ/^**, /bufˈfe/^**[1]
• Rhymes: -ɛ, -e

buffet m (invariable)

1. (furniture) sideboard

   Synonym: dispensa

2. buffet, refreshment bar

• buffet in Treccani.it – Vocabolario Treccani on line, Istituto dell'Enciclopedia Italiana

• IPA^(key): /buˈfɛt/, /ˈbufɛt/

Borrowed from Old French bufet, buffet, diminutive of buffe.

• boffat, boffet, bofett

buffet (plural buffettes)

1. A buffet (strike or blow, especially with one's hand).

• buffeten

• English: buffet
• Scots: buffet

• “buffet, n.(2).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

Borrowed from Middle French bufet (“side table”), from Old French bufet, of unknown origin.

• bofet, buffett, buffit

buffet

1. (Late Middle English) stool
   • 15th c., “Coliphizacio [The Buffeting]”, in Wakefield Mystery Plays; Re-edited in George England, Alfred W. Pollard, editors, The Towneley Plays (Early English Text Society Extra Series; LXXI), London: […] Oxford University Press, 1897, →OCLC, page 239:

     primus tortor. we shall teche hym, I wote / a new play of yoyll,
     And hold hym full hote / frawrord, a stoyll
     Go fetch vs!
     ffroward. We, dote! / now els were it doyll
     And vnneth;
     ffor the wo that he shall dre
     let hym knele on his kne.
     Secundus tortor. And so shall he for me;
     Go fetch vs a light buffit.

     First torturer: We shall teach him, I say, a new Christmas-time game, and treat him very hotly—Froward, go fetch us a stool!
     Froward: Whoa! Fool! We wouldn't want this to be painful and difficult. For the sake of the pain that he shall dread, let him kneel.
     Second torturer: And he shall [dread it] on my account. Go fetch us a light stool.

• English: buffet, beaufet (archaic) (remodelled after modern French)
  • → Japanese: ビュッフェ (byuffe)
  • → Korean: 뷔페 (bwipe)
• ⇒ Scots: buffet stule

• “buffet, n.(1).”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.

• buffé, buffe

From French buffet.

buffet m (definite singular buffeten, indefinite plural buffeter, definite plural buffetene)

1. sideboard or buffet (US) (dining room furniture containing table linen and services)
2. buffet (counter or room where refreshments are sold)
3. stående buffet - buffet (a meal which guests can serve themselves)

• buffé, buffe

From French buffet.

buffet m (definite singular buffeten, indefinite plural buffetar, definite plural buffetane)

1. sideboard or buffet (US) (dining room furniture containing table linen and services)
2. buffet (a counter or room where refreshments are sold)
3. ståande buffet - buffet (a meal which guests can serve themselves)

Unadapted borrowing from French buffet.

buffet m (plural buffets)

1. alternative form of bufê

• “buffet”, in Dicionário Priberam da Língua Portuguesa (in Portuguese), Lisbon: Priberam, 2008–2026

• bufé, bufet

Unadapted borrowing from French buffet. Doublet of bufete.

• IPA^(key): /buˈfet/ [buˈfet̪]
• Rhymes: -et
• Syllabification: buf‧fet

buffet m (plural buffets)

1. buffet

According to Royal Spanish Academy (RAE) prescriptions, unadapted foreign words should be written in italics in a text printed in roman type, and vice versa, and in quotation marks in a manuscript text or when italics are not available. In practice, this RAE prescription is not always followed.

• “bufet”, in Diccionario de la lengua española [Dictionary of the Spanish Language] (in Spanish), online version 23.8.1, Royal Spanish Academy [Spanish: Real Academia Española], 15 December 2025