Buffet
Buffet (bof*fā") , noun
[French buffet, Late Latin bufetum; of uncertain origin; perh. from the same source as English buffet a blow, the root meaning to puff, hence (compare puffed up) the idea of ostentation or display.]
1.
A cupboard or set of shelves, either movable or fixed at one side of a room, for the display of plate, china, etc., a sideboard.
Not when a gilt buffet's reflected pride
Turns you from sound philosophy aside.
2.
A counter for food or refreshments.
3.
A restaurant containing such a counter, as at a railroad station, or place of public gathering.
4.
A meal set out on a buffet[2], arranged so that guests may serve themselves and choose those items that they desire; as, a buffet dinner. Diners usually take a plate provided and move in a line past the items on the buffet[2], placing those items they desire on the plate, to be eaten at some convenient place.
Buffet (buf"fet) , noun
[Old English buffet, boffet, Old French buffet a slap in the face, a pair of bellows, from buffe blow, compare French bouffer to blow, puff; prob. akin to English puff. For the meaning slap, blow, compare French soufflet a slap, souffler to blow. See Puff, v. i., and compare Buffet sidebroad, Buffoon]
1.
A blow with the hand; a slap on the face; a cuff.
When on his cheek a buffet fell.
2.
A blow from any source, or that which affects like a blow, as the violence of winds or waves; a stroke; an adverse action; an affliction; a trial; adversity.
Those planks of tough and hardy oak that used for yeas to brave the buffets of the Bay of Biscay.
Fortune's buffets and rewards.
3.
A small stool; a stool for a buffet or counter.
Go fetch us a light buffet.
Buffet , transitive verb
[Old English buffeten, Old French buffeter. See the preceding noun.]
1.
To strike with the hand or fist; to box; to beat; to cuff; to slap.
They spit in his face and buffeted him.
2.
To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against; as, to buffet the billows.
The sudden hurricane in thunder roars,
Buffets the bark, and whirls it from the shores.
You are lucky fellows who can live in a dreamland of your own, instead of being buffeted about the world.
3.
To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.
Buffet , intransitive verb
1.
To exercise or play at boxing; to strike; to smite; to strive; to contend.
If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on like a butcher.
2.
To make one's way by blows or struggling.
Strove to buffet to land in vain.