huff

Word family

huff1 /hʌf/ verb informal

1 huff and puff informal

a) BREATHEto breathe out in a noisy way, especially when you do something that involves a lot of physical effort 气喘吁吁

He was huffing and puffing by the time he got to the top.

他到顶层的时候已经气喘吁吁了。

b) to show clearly that you strongly disagree with or are annoyed about something 强烈反对；发脾气

After a lot of huffing and puffing, he eventually gave in to our request.

经过多番强烈反对后，他最终还是妥协，同意了我们的请求。

Examples from the Corpus

huff and puff• It was a huffing and puffing.• A couple of pudgy joggers were huffing and puffing along the path.• Now there's to be a schools painting competition about the bulldozers that can huff and puff and pull the house down.• But however the warning was given, the board, huff and puff as it might, will have to pay attention.• Brian, furious, would huff and puff as Mazzin unceremoniously threw him back down on his bed.• He huffed and puffed-but failed to shake the growing edifice of evidence stacked up against him.• After all their huffing and puffing, every incumbent was desperate to claim some achievement.• Before long he was huffing and puffing, his dark neck thrust out at a sharp angle.• He ascends, huffing and puffing, stopping at each landing.

2 [transitiveT] to say something in a way that shows you are annoyed, often because someone has offended you 〔常指因受到冒犯而〕生气地说

‘I haven’t got time for that now, ’ huffed Sam irritably.

“我目前没有时间做那件事情。”萨姆气冲冲地说道。

Examples from the Corpus

huff• The butler inserted a hooked finger into his collar, grimaced and huffed.• Now there's to be a schools painting competition about the bulldozers that can huff and puff and pull the house down.• Last weekend they huffed and puffed at the unbeaten league leaders Wasps and were within one try of blowing them down.• He huffed and puffed-but failed to shake the growing edifice of evidence stacked up against him.• Marvin huffed off to compose his cable.• "That was unbelievably irresponsible, " huffed one teacher.

huff2 noun

in a huff BAD-TEMPEREDfeeling angry or bad-tempered, especially because someone has offended you 生气，气恼〔尤指因受到冒犯〕

go off/walk off/leave etc in a huff

She stormed out in a huff.

她气呼呼地冲了出去。

Examples from the Corpus

in a huff• He retired to his basket in a huff and I went off to the supermarket in a quandary.• I felt I ought to have gone in earlier; that now I had put him in a huff.• Michelle got mad and left in a huff.• McCloskey, in a huff, went to the University of Iowa.• Did Parks stomp off in a huff like some injured prima donna, some egomaniac?• Owen went off in a huff and read the papers.• He was still in a huff that she was planning to take Petey along to the meeting that night.

Examples from the Corpus

huff• He retired to his basket in a huff and I went off to the supermarket in a quandary.• Did Parks stomp off in a huff like some injured prima donna, some egomaniac?• Owen went off in a huff and read the papers.• He was still in a huff that she was planning to take Petey along to the meeting that night.• Aunt Glegg leaves in an insulted huff, saying she will call in the five hundred pounds she loaned to Tulliver.• He was in a little huff.• It gloats when we win and goes in the huff when we lose.

Origin huff1

(1500-1600) From the sound

huff1 verbhuff2 noun

Chinese

Corpus