What does duff mean?
Duff is best known as a traditional boiled pudding — a dense mixture of flour, suet, and dried fruit wrapped in a cloth and steamed for hours. 'Plum duff', studded with raisins, was a staple treat aboard Royal Navy ships and in working-class kitchens across Britain and its former colonies, often served on Sundays or holidays. From this nautical and domestic heritage the word carries a cosy, old-fashioned flavour today. Separately, 'duff' functions as informal British slang: as a verb it means to bungle or mishandle something, especially in sport ('he duffed his putt'), and the phrase 'duff up' means to beat someone soundly. A rarer noun sense denotes a heavy blow or thump. Because these senses are distinct in register — one culinary and historical, the other colloquial — readers should rely on context to tell them apart. The word remains useful both for describing heritage recipes and for adding colour to casual accounts of failure.
A dense pudding made of flour, suet, and dried fruit, boiled or steamed in a cloth or bag.
"Sunday dinner ended with plum duff and a jug of warm custard."
Chiefly historical or regional today, but well attested in British, Irish, Newfoundland, and Caribbean cooking.
To mishandle or spoil something, especially a stroke or performance; also (in 'duff up') to beat a person.
"He duffed the easy catch and let the whole team down."
Informal British English.
A heavy blow or dull thump.
"He gave the door a good duff with his fist before it finally opened."
Less common than the other senses.
Used mainly for multiple puddings; the 'blow' sense pluralizes similarly but is rare.
"The galley produced three steaming duffs for the crew's Christmas dinner."
Before there were birthday cakes on ships, sailors celebrated with plum duff — a pudding boiled in a cloth for hours at sea.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of duff
The noun 'duff', first recorded in English by the late seventeenth or early eighteenth century, is generally taken to be a dialectal alteration of 'dough', reflecting the pudding's simple flour-and-suet base. It spread through naval and working-class usage, giving rise to fixed dishes such as plum duff and figgy duff in Britain, Newfoundland, and the Caribbean. The slang verb meaning 'to botch' arose later in British English, and 'duff up' developed as a colloquial term for beating someone.
How duff is actually used
'Duff' as a pudding is now largely historical or regional (especially in Britain, Ireland, Newfoundland, and the Caribbean), while the verbal sense is informal British English; neither belongs in formal writing except when discussing food history.
Easily confused with duff
A 'duffer' is an incompetent or inept person (or, historically, a pedlar of sham goods), whereas 'duff' is itself the pudding, the blow, or the verb meaning to botch or thrash.