poof

• pouf

Onomatopoeic. See also puff.

• enPR: po͝of, IPA^(key): /pʊf/
• (US)
  • IPA^(key): /puːf/, [puːɸ]

  • Audio (US)

    (file)

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʊf, -uːf
• Homophones: pouf, pouffe (with certain dialects and/or accents)

poof

1. Onomatopoeia indicating a small explosion with a cloud of smoke; as caused by a deflating object, or a magical disappearance.

   Poof, he was gone.

   • 1969, Beard & Kennedy, Bored of the Rings, page 87:

     Even now, in the spring, the river softly cries, 'Menthol, Menthol, you are one wazoo. One day I'm the elf next door and the poof I'm a river.'

   • 1995, Christopher McQuarrie, The Usual Suspects (motion picture), spoken by Verbal (Kevin Spacey):

     The greatest trick the Devil ever pulled was convincing the world he didn't exist. And like that, poof. He's gone.

• foofy
• go poof
• poofy

poof (third-person singular simple present poofs, present participle poofing, simple past and past participle poofed)

1. To vanish or disappear.

   He poofed into thin air.

   • 2019, Justin Blackburn, The Bisexual Christian Suburban Failure Enlightening Bipolar Blues, page 22:

     He's a figment of your subconscious Eric, not mine, so I tapped into Ultimate Reality and poofed him out.

2. (intransitive) To break wind; to fart.

poof (plural poofs)

1. The product of flatulence, or the sound of breaking wind.

Origin unknown.

poof (plural poofs or (less common) pooves)

1. (UK, Australia, New Zealand, Ireland, Commonwealth, derogatory, colloquial) A gay man; especially one who is effeminate.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:male homosexual

   • 2015, Irvine Welsh, A Decent Ride‎, Random House, →ISBN, page 21:

     He recalls how everybody got called a ‘poof’ at Forrester High School in the seventies. Back then, only ‘wanker’ possibly rivalled it as the most common term of abuse. But The Poof was the Poof.

• poofter