eff (pluraleffs)
- Alternative spelling ofef;the name of theLatin-script letterF/f.
a.1746 (date written),Jonathan Swift, “On the Irish Club”, inThomas Sheridan,John Nichols, editors,The Works of the Rev. Jonathan Swift, […], new edition, volume VIII, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], published1801,→OCLC,page78:Why against printers all this noise? This summoning of blackguard boys? Why so sagacious in your guesses? Youreffs, andtees, andarrs, andeſſes? Take my advice; to make you safe, I know a shorter way be half.
1969, Michael Feld,The Sabbatical Year, London:Alan Ross Ltd, page301:‘Eff. You. En,’ said Mr Banstead. ‘Fun! […]’
2019, Amy Einsohn, Marilyn Schwartz, “[Abbreviations and Symbols] Abbreviations”, inThe Copyeditor’s Handbook: A Guide for Book Publishing and Corporate Communications, 4th edition,University of California Press,→ISBN, part 2 (Editorial Style), page242:A or an? When an indefinite article precedes an acronym or initialism, the choice betweena andan follows from the pronunciation: / a FAQ file (“fack”; but “an FAQ file” with the alternate pronunciation “eff-ay-cue”) / an FTC commissioner (“eff-tee-cee”)
A variant spelling of the letterf, the initial letter offuck. Comparepee.
eff (third-person singular simple presenteffs,present participleeffing,simple past and past participleeffed)
- (euphemistic, slang)Synonym offuck.
- Synonyms:feck,frak,frig,fork,funk;see alsoThesaurus:fuck
Eff off!
And he kept saying, "Effing this,effing that."
2022 September 22,Mike McMahan, “Reflections” (4:41 from the start), inStar Trek: Lower Decks[1], season 3, episode 5, spoken by Samanthan Rutherford (Eugene Cordero):“Holy moly. What the heck is happening here? Hey, hey! Let me out of here. Hey, you. Give me back control of my body.” “[scoffs] Nah, dude, this is my body. You alreadyeffed it up.” “No, it's not.” “Whatever, man. I don't take orders from a reflection. [chuckles]” “I'm not a reflection. Help! I think an anaphasic alien took over my body.”
2024 October 21,Paul Simms, “The Return of Jerry” (21:03 from the start), inWhat We Do in the Shadows[2], season 6, episode 1, spoken by The Guide (Kristen Schaal):“So what do you think?” “Am I supposed toeff him or, you know, what's the plan here?” “I mean, you can if you want, but, no, that's not why I brought him here.” “Well, why did you bring him here? PS: I probably willeff him. But more out of boredom than anything else. [sighs] Such is the plight of The Guide.”
Back-formation fromineffable, ultimately fromLatineffor(“utter”).
eff (third-person singular simple presenteffs,present participleeffing,simple past and past participleeffed)
- Toput into words; toexpress.
1953,Samuel Beckett,Watt,[Paris]:Olympia Press,→OCLC:[…] and perhaps also because what we know partakes in no small measure of the nature of what has so happily been called the unutterable or ineffable, so that any attempt to utter oreff it is doomed to fail, doomed, doomed to fail.
2001, Paul West,Master Class: Scenes from a Fiction Workshop, page57:They, no more than we, found it hard toeff the ineffable, but they, you see, needed to console themselves more.
2018, Wesley J. Wildman,Effing the Ineffable: Existential Mumblings at the Limits of Language, page83:It is another way ofeffing the ineffable, one with potentially serious practical effects.
2020, Tim Vivian,Other Voices, Other Rooms: Poems, page100:Douglas Adams (1952–2001), author of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, puts it memorably: “Let's think the unthinkable, let's do the undoable. Let us prepare to grapple with the ineffable itself, and see if we may noteff it after all.”
- This verb is unlikely to be understood without priming the listener by using the wordineffable in the same paragraph.
eff (genitive[please provide],partitive[please provide])
- The name of theLatin-script letterF/f.
eff n (genitive singularefs, pluraleff)
- The name of theLatin-script letterF/f.
- (Latin-script letter names)bókstavur;a /fyrra a,á,be,de,edd,e,eff,ge,há,i /fyrra i,í /fyrra í,jodd,ká,ell,emm,enn,o,ó,pe,err,ess,te,u,ú,ve,seinna i,seinna í,seinna a,ø
eff
- The name of theLatin-script letterF/f.
- (Latin-script letter names)betű;a,á,bé,cé,csé,dé,dzé,dzsé,e,é,eff,gé,gyé,há,i,í,jé,ká,ell,ellipszilon /elly /ejj,emm,enn,enny,o,ó,ö,ő,pé,kú,err,ess,essz,té,tyé,u,ú,ü,ű,vé,dupla vé /vevé,iksz,ipszilon,zé,zsé. (See also:Latin script letters.)
- eff , redirecting to(1):f and(2):f in Géza Bárczi,László Országh,et al., editors,A magyar nyelv értelmező szótára [The Explanatory Dictionary of the Hungarian Language] (ÉrtSz.), Budapest: Akadémiai Kiadó, 1959–1962.Fifth ed., 1992:→ISBN.
eff n (genitive singulareffs,nominative pluraleff)
- The name of theLatin-script letterF/f.
eff (genitive[please provide],partitive[please provide])
- The name of theLatin-script letterF/f.
This noun needs aninflection-table template.
