HOW TO PRONOUNCE
buffer
/ˈbʌfəɹ/
Press play to hear how to pronounce buffer.
American Pronunciation Guide · 1:03
Watch on YouTube ↗
Watch on YouTube ↗
What does buffer mean?
noun
- A machine with rotary brushes, passed over a hard floor to clean it.
- A machine for polishing shoes and boots.
adjective
- Comparative form of buff: more buff.
More meanings (20)
noun
- A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid, such as by resisting a change in pH when an acid or alkali is added.
- Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.
- A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
- The barrier placed at the end of the track to absorb the impact of a train that fails to stop.
- An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
- A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.
- A portion of memory set aside to temporarily store data, often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.
- A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
- A means, often normally idle inventory, used as a cushion against fluctuations in business, especially in the supply or demand for goods.
- A reserve of funds set aside for use only when adverse circumstances prevail.
- (figuratively) A gap that isolates or separates two things.
- (slang) The chief boatswain's mate.
- A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
- (archaic, slang) A boxer.
- (dated, slang) A dog.
verb
- To use a buffer or buffers; to attempt to isolate or minimize the effects of one thing or another.
- To queue up (an input) so that it is performed immediately once it is possible.
- To store (data) in memory temporarily while it is awaiting processing.
- To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.
proper noun
- A surname
Definitions regrouped for readability · CC BY-SA 4.0
IPA pronunciation
/ˈbʌfəɹ/
Wiktionary contributors · CC BY-SA 4.0 ↗Pronunciation varies by speaker and region. About these dictionary pronunciations.
In the pages of books
See this word in context.
The idiot who, in railway carriages, Scribbles on window-panes, We only suffer To ride on a buffer In Parliamentary trains.
Such a plate necessarily requires at the hand of the operator considerable labor before the surface is in a proper condition to receive a suitable polish from the buffer.
More book examples (3)
Finally, firmly attached to the inner framework by rods of aluminium, were two cars of the same metal, furnished with buffer springs to break the force of a fall.
I cannot but think that Judas Iscariot has been of great service to the world as a sort of buffer for moral indignation which might have made a collision nearer home but for his utilized treachery.
This will consist of hammer and pincers, drawing-knife and buffer.