Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun Pamphlets, forms, memorandums, or similar printed matter, especially when considered uninteresting or unimportant.
- noun Toilet paper.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun UK, obsolete
Toilet paper . - noun Useless papers; now especially official documents, standardized forms, sales and marketing print material etc.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
- noun reading materials (documents, written information) that you must read and deal with but that you think are extremely boring
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Support
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Examples
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Am I missing something or is some stupid company in bumf*CK reading Pennsylvania giving a NY truck shit?
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Nowhere in the bumf is his new job title mentioned.
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Nowhere in the bumf is his new job title mentioned.
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Nowhere in the bumf is his new job title mentioned.
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The secretary of Elizabeth I's Privy Council is supposed to have submitted the warrant for the execution of Mary Stuart several times, concealed in a pile of lesser bumf, to help the Queen get over the hump.
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He had a wodge of papers with him, official forms, all sorts, the bumf as the pilots called it—Jerry recognized the one you signed that named who your pension went to, and the one about what to do with your body if there was one and anyone had time to bother.
Songs of Love & Death George R. R. Martin 2010
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Anyway, we have another plethora of reviews and bumf for you today.
Archive 2010-06-01 David Moore 2010
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He had a wodge of papers with him, official forms, all sorts, the bumf as the pilots called it—Jerry recognized the one you signed that named who your pension went to, and the one about what to do with your body if there was one and anyone had time to bother.
Songs of Love & Death George R. R. Martin 2010
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Anyway, we have another plethora of reviews and bumf for you today.
Tomorrow, and Tomorrow, and Reviewspam Creeps In This Petty Pace David Moore 2010
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He had a wodge of papers with him, official forms, all sorts, the bumf as the pilots called it—Jerry recognized the one you signed that named who your pension went to, and the one about what to do with your body if there was one and anyone had time to bother.
Songs of Love & Death George R. R. Martin 2010
yarb commented on the word bumf
See also bumpf.
January 5, 2008
teasea commented on the word bumf
Bumf: That portion of the enormous mass of official correspondence which was used for a more undignified purpose than originally intended. Later applied more generally to correspondence and literature of little value.
This was an abbreviation of ‘bumfodder’ current from 1889 as schoolboys’ slang for ‘toilet paper’. In the war it was applied to official correspondence, most of which was viewed as unnecessary. It has acquired general currency for paperwork since World War I. Also spelt ‘bumph’.
April 15, 2008
chained_bear commented on the word bumf
"'Here,' he'd said, appearing abruptly out of the dressing room with guitar and drum. He'd handed her a small brown envelope. 'I found these, going through my dad's old bumf in Inverness. I thought you'd maybe want them.'"
—Diana Gabaldon, Drums of Autumn (NY: Dell, 1997), 78
January 17, 2010
qms commented on the word bumf
Bumf is not a word we encounter often here in the non-penal colonies. I like it. I like it’s sound, it’s provenance, its two meanings and all three of its spellings.
I nominate the “bumf” spelling as the one that is most fitting to mean wasteful documentation:
The efficiency expert's on the prowl
I dread his eyes and fear his scowl,
And cry of triumph
At finding my bumf -
That job-killing barbaric howl.
See more at bumpf.
May 23, 2014