(buf) noun
1. A thick, soft, flexible leather, undyed and unglazed, made from the skins of buffalo, elk, oxen, etc: also buff leather.
2. Its color, a light yellow.
3. A coat made of buff leather.
4. Colloq. The bare skin; the nude: in the buff.
5. A stick or wheel covered with leather, velvet, etc., and used with emery and other powders in polishing: also buff′er.
— adjective Made of, or of the color of, buff leather; brownish-yellow.
—v.t.
1. To clean or polish with or as with a buff.
2. In leather-making, to shave, as cowskin, on the grain side until very thin, producing an imitation of calf leather.
3. To make buff in color. [<F buffle buffalo]

(buf) noun
A blow; buffet: only in blindman's-buff.
— v.t.
1. To deaden the shock of.
2. To strike; buffet.
— v.i.
3. To act as a buffer. [<OF buffe blow]

(buf) noun
1. Originally, a voluntary, unofficial auxiliary of a fire department.
2. One who rushes to attend fires.
3. An enthusiast in any special field, who attends all possible events: a theater buff. [? Special use of BUFF¹]
AFRICAN OR CAPE BUFFALO