Library / English Dictionary

BUFFET

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

 I. (noun) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

A piece of furniture that stands at the side of a dining room; has shelves and drawers

Synonyms:

buffet; counter; sideboard

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("buffet" is a kind of...):

article of furniture; furniture; piece of furniture (furnishings that make a room or other area ready for occupancy)

Meronyms (parts of "buffet"):

drawer (a boxlike container in a piece of furniture; made so as to slide in and out)

shelf (a support that consists of a horizontal surface for holding objects)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffet"):

credence; credenza (a kind of sideboard or buffet)

cellaret; minibar (sideboard with compartments for holding bottles)

Holonyms ("buffet" is a part of...):

dining-room; dining room (a room used for dining)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Usually inexpensive bar

Synonyms:

buffet; snack bar; snack counter

Classified under:

Nouns denoting man-made objects

Hypernyms ("buffet" is a kind of...):

bar (a counter where you can obtain food or drink)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffet"):

commissary (a snack bar in a film studio)

milk bar (snack bar that sells milk drinks and light refreshments (such as ice cream))

Sense 3

Meaning:

A meal set out on a buffet at which guests help themselves

Classified under:

Nouns denoting foods and drinks

Hypernyms ("buffet" is a kind of...):

meal; repast (the food served and eaten at one time)

Hyponyms (each of the following is a kind of "buffet"):

smorgasbord (an assortment of foods starting with herring or smoked eel or salmon etc with bread and butter; then cheeses and eggs and pickled vegetables and aspics; finally hot foods; served as a buffet meal)

 II. (verb) 

Sense 1

Meaning:

Strike, beat repeatedly

Example:

The wind buffeted him

Synonyms:

buff; buffet

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "buffet" is one way to...):

hit (deal a blow to, either with the hand or with an instrument)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody

Sense 2

Meaning:

Strike against forcefully

Example:

Winds buffeted the tent

Synonyms:

batter; buffet; knock about

Classified under:

Verbs of touching, hitting, tying, digging

Hypernyms (to "buffet" is one way to...):

strike (deliver a sharp blow, as with the hand, fist, or weapon)

Sentence frames:

Somebody ----s something
Somebody ----s somebody
Something ----s somebody
Something ----s something

Credits

 Context examples: 

I heard several bangs or buffets, as I thought given to the eagle (for such I am certain it must have been that held the ring of my box in his beak), and then, all on a sudden, felt myself falling perpendicularly down, for above a minute, but with such incredible swiftness, that I almost lost my breath.

(Gulliver's Travels into several remote nations of the world, by Jonathan Swift)

Du Guesclin gazed round the tapestried room, at the screens, the tables, the abace, the credence, the buffet with its silver salver, and the half-circle of friendly, wondering faces.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

It was twenty past three when we reached our terminus, and after a hasty luncheon at the buffet we pushed on at once to Scotland Yard.

(The Memoirs of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I went to the window and looked out, but could see nothing, except a big bat, which had evidently been buffeting its wings against the window.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Over the years, she started noticing that uninvited guests had apparently been serving themselves at the bamboo buffet—and they were eating like horses…literally.

(Belly up to the bamboo buffet: Pandas vs. horses, NSF)

I had it in my thoughts to remonstrate with him upon his desperate way of pursuing any fancy that he took—such as this buffeting of rough seas, and braving of hard weather, for example—when my mind glanced off to the immediate subject of our conversation again, and pursued that instead.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Three hours more were required to gasket the mainsail and jib, and at two in the morning, nearly dead, the life almost buffeted and worked out of me, I had barely sufficient consciousness to know the experiment was a success.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

I have heard that at Twynham Castle there is a buffet which groans beneath the weight of his prizes.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

As she lay there in my arms, and I in hers, the flapping and buffeting came to the window again.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)

Damp and soggy where it was not sharp and rocky, buffeted by storm winds and lashed by the sea, with the air continually a-tremble with the bellowing of two hundred thousand amphibians, it was a melancholy and miserable sojourning-place.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)