puffer (pufer)

[ attends a sale by auction for the purpose of raising the price and exciting the eagerne of bidders to the advantage of the seller. Also called bonnet and white bonnet. IMG:content-1271.png:[graphic][merged small] Upon the suspicion that the plaintiff was a puffer , the question was put whether any puffers were present. Lord Chan . Eldon (1806), Mason v. Armitage, 13 Ves. [25, 37. Puffing, it has been said, is illegal, even if there be only one puffer . Encyc. Brit ., III. 69. 3. A fish that swells or puffs up; specifically, any member of either of the plectognath families Tetrodontidæ and Diodontidæ, all of whose species, some eighty in number, have the habit of inflating themselves with air which they swallow; a swell-fish or globe-fish; a blower. The common puffer or swell-fish, Sphæroides maculatus or Tetrodon turgid us, is a good example. The tambor or smooth puffer is Lagocephaluslævigatus. The rough puffer is Chilomycterus schæpfi or geometric us. See cuts under Diodon, swell - fish, and Tetrodontidæ. 4. A porpoise or puffing-pig.-5. In weaving, a vat in which linen and cotton cloth is cleansed by boiling; a bucking-keir. puffer-pipe (puf'er-pip), п. In weaving, the central pipe of a bucking-keir, from the top of which water is discharged over the cloth. puffery (puf'er-i), n. [ I have reviewed myself ince antly, Nay, made a contract with a kindred spirit For mutual interchange of puffery . Gods! how we blew each other! W. E. Aytoun, Firmilian. Puff ! did not I take him nobly? Beau. and Fl ., King and No King, i. 1. puff-fish (puf'fish), n. A puffer or swell-fish. puff-adder (puf'ad"ėr), n. The largest and most venomous African serpent of the family Viperidæ , Clotho arietans . It lies with its body partly immersed in the sand, its head only being exposed, so pedestrians are liable to tread on it. It is sluggish in its nature, and the Bushman will fearle ly put his foot on its neck, and then cut off its head for the sake of its venom, with which he poisons his arrows. It is, when full-grown, from 4 to 5 feet long, and as thick as a man's arm. It is named from its habit of puffing up the upper part of its body when irritated. See cut under Viperidæ . Compare puffing -adder.