Definitions

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

  • noun An incompetent or dull-witted person.
  • noun A casual or mediocre player of a sport, especially golf.
  • noun Slang A peddler of cheap merchandise.
  • noun Slang Something worthless or useless.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A peddler; specifically, one who sells women's clothes.
  • noun A hawker of eheap, flashy, and professedly smuggled articles; a hawker of sham jewelry.
  • noun A stupid, dull, plodding person; a fogy; a person who only seemingly discharges the functions of his position; a dawdling, useless character: as, the board consists entirely of old duffers.

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

  • noun Slang, Eng. A peddler or hawker, especially of cheap, flashy articles, as sham jewelry; hence, a sham or cheat.
  • noun Slang A stupid, awkward, inefficient person.
  • noun (Mining) See shicer.
  • noun (Zoöl.) Any common domestic pigeon.
  • noun Australia One who duffs cattle, etc.

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

  • adjective comparative form of duff: more duff
  • noun informal An incompetent or clumsy person.
  • noun sports A player having little skill, especially a golfer who duffs.
  • noun archaic A pedlar or hawker, especially one selling cheap or substandard goods.
  • noun archaic Cheap or substandard goods sold by a duffer.
  • noun A cow that does not produce milk.
  • noun Australia, dated A cattle thief; one who alters the brands of cattle.

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

  • noun an incompetent or clumsy person

Etymologies

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

[Origin unknown.]

Support

Help support Wordnik (and make this page ad-free) by adopting the word duffer.

Examples

Comments

Log in or sign up to get involved in the conversation. It's quick and easy.

  • Funny – that's how I describe my golf game

    June 28, 2009

  • For ruzuzu's cattle list:

    n. A cow that does not produce milk.

    n. Australia, dated; A cattle thief; one who alters the brands of cattle.

    March 22, 2013

  • Dated, perhaps, but not out of use.

    March 22, 2013