n. [ OE. buffet, boffet, OF. buffet a slap in the face, a pair of bellows, fr. buffe blow, cf. F. bouffer to blow, puff; prob. akin to E. puff. For the meaning slap, blow, cf. F. soufflet a slap, souffler to blow. See Puff, v. i., and cf. Buffet sidebroad, Buffoon ] 1. A blow with the hand; a slap on the face; a cuff. [ 1913 Webster ]

When on his cheek a buffet fell. Sir W. Scott. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A blow from any source, or that which affects like a blow, as the violence of winds or waves; a stroke; an adverse action; an affliction; a trial; adversity. [ 1913 Webster ]

Those planks of tough and hardy oak that used for yeas to brave the buffets of the Bay of Biscay. Burke. [ 1913 Webster ]

Fortune's buffets and rewards. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. A small stool; a stool for a buffet or counter. [ 1913 Webster ]

Go fetch us a light buffet. Townely Myst. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. i. 1. To exercise or play at boxing; to strike; to smite; to strive; to contend. [ 1913 Webster ]

If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on like a butcher. Shak. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To make one's way by blows or struggling. [ 1913 Webster ]

Strove to buffet to land in vain. Tennyson. [ 1913 Webster ]

v. t. [ imp. & p. p. Buffeted; p. pr. & vb. n. Buffeting. ] [ OE. buffeten, OF. buffeter. See the preceding noun. ] 1. To strike with the hand or fist; to box; to beat; to cuff; to slap. [ 1913 Webster ]

They spit in his face and buffeted him. Matt. xxvi. 67. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against; as, to buffet the billows. [ 1913 Webster ]

The sudden hurricane in thunder roars,
Buffets the bark, and whirls it from the shores. Broome. [ 1913 Webster ]

You are lucky fellows who can live in a dreamland of your own, instead of being buffeted about the world. W. Black. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. [ Cf. Buffer. ] To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. [ F. buffet, LL. bufetum; of uncertain origin; perh. fr. the same source as E. buffet a blow, the root meaning to puff, hence (cf. puffed up) the idea of ostentation or display. ] 1. A cupboard or set of shelves, either movable or fixed at one side of a room, for the display of plate, china, etc., a sideboard. [ 1913 Webster ]

Not when a gilt buffet's reflected pride
Turns you from sound philosophy aside. Pope. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A counter for food or refreshments. [ 1913 Webster ]

3. Hence: A restaurant containing such a counter, as at a railroad station, or place of public gathering. [ 1913 Webster ]

4. A meal set out on a buffet[ 2 ], arranged so that guests may serve themselves and choose those items that they desire; as, a buffet dinner. Diners usually take a plate provided and move in a line past the items on the buffet[ 2 ], placing those items they desire on the plate, to be eaten at some convenient place. [ PJC ]

adj. struck repeatedly; -- used especially of impact from winds, and sometimes metaphorically; as, buffeted by criticism. [ WordNet 1.5 +PJC ]

n. One who buffets; a boxer. Jonson. [ 1913 Webster ]

n. 1. A striking with the hand. [ 1913 Webster ]

2. A succession of blows; continued violence, as of winds or waves; afflictions; adversity. [ 1913 Webster ]

He seems to have been a plant of slow growth, but . . . fitted to endure the buffeting on the rudest storm. Wirt. [ 1913 Webster ]