Meaning of Buffer | Babel Free

Definitions

1. Someone or something that buffs (polishes and makes shiny).
2. A machine with rotary brushes, passed over a hard floor to clean it.
3. Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
4. 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.
5. A surname
6. A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
   colloquial
7. A dog.
   UK, dated, slang
8. A machine for polishing shoes and boots.
9. Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.
10. A boxer.
    Ireland, archaic, slang
11. A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
12. The barrier placed at the end of the track to absorb the impact of a train that fails to stop.
13. An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
14. 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.
15. 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.
16. A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
17. A reserve of funds set aside for use only when adverse circumstances prevail.
18. A gap that isolates or separates two things.
    figuratively
19. The chief boatswain's mate.
    UK, slang

Equivalents

Examples

“Such a buffer as Donnelly, / Ereland never again will see⟳.”

“1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, https://archive.org/details/mikadootherplays00gilb The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer⟳ / To ride⟳ on a buffer / In Parliamentary trains.”

“The underframe, which has been designed to take⟳ buffing loads of 200 tons both on the centre coupler and on the retractable side buffers, consists of two centre girders from which cantilevers project to support⟳ the solebars, which in turn⟳ carry⟳ the bodyside structure⟳.”

“Then, with a shock⟳ like⟳ a thousand goods trains crashing into a thousand pairs of buffers, the lips of rock closed.”

“Of course, I was not always right. I questioned the value of Crossrail (a scheme revived by Prescott after being scrapped by the Conservatives), suggesting wrongly that it may be "doomed to hit the buffers" […]. A dozen years later, I published my book on it, extolling the line's wonders. We are all allowed to change⟳ our minds.”

“I keep⟳ a savings buffer of three months' worth of living expenses.”

“An utterly emphatic 5-0 victory was ultimately capped by two wonder⟳ strikes in the last⟳ two minutes from Aston Villa midfielder Gary Gardner. Before that, England had utterly dominated to take⟳ another purposeful stride⟳ towards the 2013 European Championship in Israel. They have⟳ already established a five-point buffer at the top of Group Eight.”

“He decided to run⟳ for president of the POs' Mess against the Buffer, Chief Bosun's Mate Mal Crane, but the two had a face-to-face in his cabin one night in Narvik and sorted it out.”

“I happen⟳ to be on the brow handing my Bosun's Mate duties over to an Ordinary Seaman when the Buffer arrives with an unofficial Side-Party to man the brow with Bosun's Calls at the ready.”

“Lastly, the looking-glass reflects Boots and Brewer, and two other stuffed Buffers interposed between the rest⟳ of the company and possible accidents.”

“Here, too, are Boots and Brewer, and the two other Buffers; each Buffer with a flower in his button-hole, his hair curled, and his gloves buttoned on tight, apparently come⟳ prepared, if anything had happened to the bridegroom, to be married instantly.”

“I can’t expect⟳ two youngsters like⟳ you to find⟳ it much fun talking to an old buffer like⟳ me.”

“Who does not remember⟳ that adorable little dog, and that last⟳ Christmas season at Olympia, when the Whimmy we had all loved had been dead a month or so, and his buffer ran disconsolately round the circus, pining […]”

CEFR level