Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A clown; a jester.
  • noun A person given to clowning and joking.
  • noun A ludicrous or bumbling person; a fool.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun One who makes a practice of amusing others by tricks, odd gestures and postures, jokes, and other vulgar pleasantries; a droll; a merryandrew; a clown; a jester.
  • noun Synonyms See zany.
  • Characteristic of a buffoon; buffoonish.
  • To act the part of a buffoon.
  • To make ridiculous.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun A man who makes a practice of amusing others by low tricks, antic gestures, etc.; a droll; a mimic; a harlequin; a clown; a merry-andrew.
  • adjective Characteristic of, or like, a buffoon.
  • transitive verb To treat with buffoonery.
  • intransitive verb rare To act the part of a buffoon.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun One who acts in a silly or ridiculous fashion; a clown or fool.
  • noun pejorative An unintentionally ridiculous person.
  • verb To behave like a buffoon

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun a rude or vulgar fool
  • noun a person who amuses others by ridiculous behavior

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[French bouffon, from Old Italian buffone, from buffa, jest, from buffare, to puff, of imitative origin.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle French bouffon, from Italian buffone ("jester"), from buffare ("to puff out the cheeks")

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Examples

Comments

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  • i just realized i've been spelling buffoon wrong my entire life (spelling it baffoon). i feel like such a buffoon now. *facepalm* *wordnik crisis*

    March 29, 2013

  • No worries--we'll just calmly add a madeupical definition in the comments over on baffoon. Something about how it combines the meanings for buffoon and baboon, perhaps?

    March 29, 2013

  • yes ruzuzu that's exactly what happened. gettin my baboons and buffoons all mixed up :P

    March 29, 2013