bouffer

French

Etymology

Inherited from Old French bouffer, originally "to puff up," from Medieval Latin buffa, itself echoic of puffing out cheeks.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /bu.fe/

• (file)

• Audio

  (file)

Verb

bouffer

1. (colloquial, transitive, intransitive) to eat

   Synonyms: manger, becter

   J’ai la dalle, j’ai pas encore bouffé. ― I'm famished, I haven't eaten yet.

2. (colloquial, transitive, figuratively) to eat, to worry

   Synonym: ronger

   Tous ces problèmes avec ma femme, ça me bouffe. ― All these problems with my wife are eating away at me

3. (colloquial, transitive) to consume in excess

   Cette bagnole bouffe quinze litres aux cent facilement. ― This car gobbles fifteen liters per hundred (kilometres) easily.

4. (colloquial, transitive) to bash (criticise harshly)

   Ce soir, on va bouffer du curé. ― Tonight, we will chew up the priest.

Conjugation

Conjugation of bouffer (see also Appendix:French verbs)

infinitive	simple	bouffer
	compound	avoir + past participle
present participle or gerund1	simple	bouffant /bu.fɑ̃/
	compound	ayant + past participle
past participle		bouffé /bu.fe/
		singular			plural
		first	second	third	first	second	third
indicative		je (j’)	tu	il, elle, on	nous	vous	ils, elles
(simple tenses)	present	bouffe /buf/	bouffes /buf/	bouffe /buf/	bouffons /bu.fɔ̃/	bouffez /bu.fe/	bouffent /buf/
	imperfect	bouffais /bu.fɛ/	bouffais /bu.fɛ/	bouffait /bu.fɛ/	bouffions /bu.fjɔ̃/	bouffiez /bu.fje/	bouffaient /bu.fɛ/
	past historic2	bouffai /bu.fe/	bouffas /bu.fa/	bouffa /bu.fa/	bouffâmes /bu.fam/	bouffâtes /bu.fat/	bouffèrent /bu.fɛʁ/
	future	boufferai /bu.fʁe/	boufferas /bu.fʁa/	bouffera /bu.fʁa/	boufferons /bu.fʁɔ̃/	boufferez /bu.fʁe/	boufferont /bu.fʁɔ̃/
	conditional	boufferais /bu.fʁɛ/	boufferais /bu.fʁɛ/	boufferait /bu.fʁɛ/	boufferions /bu.fə.ʁjɔ̃/	boufferiez /bu.fə.ʁje/	boufferaient /bu.fʁɛ/
(compound tenses)	present perfect	present indicative of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect	imperfect indicative of avoir + past participle
	past anterior2	past historic of avoir + past participle
	future perfect	future of avoir + past participle
	conditional perfect	conditional of avoir + past participle
subjunctive		que je (j’)	que tu	qu’il, qu’elle	que nous	que vous	qu’ils, qu’elles
(simple tenses)	present	bouffe /buf/	bouffes /buf/	bouffe /buf/	bouffions /bu.fjɔ̃/	bouffiez /bu.fje/	bouffent /buf/
	imperfect2	bouffasse /bu.fas/	bouffasses /bu.fas/	bouffât /bu.fa/	bouffassions /bu.fa.sjɔ̃/	bouffassiez /bu.fa.sje/	bouffassent /bu.fas/
(compound tenses)	past	present subjunctive of avoir + past participle
	pluperfect2	imperfect subjunctive of avoir + past participle
imperative		–	tu	–	nous	vous	–
simple		—	bouffe /buf/	—	bouffons /bu.fɔ̃/	bouffez /bu.fe/	—
compound		—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	simple imperative of avoir + past participle	—
1 The French gerund is usable only with the preposition en.
2 In less formal writing or speech, these tenses may be found to have been replaced in the following way: past historic → present perfect past anterior → pluperfect imperfect subjunctive → present subjunctive pluperfect subjunctive → past subjunctive (Christopher Kendris [1995], Master the Basics: French, pp. 77, 78, 79, 81).

Derived terms

• bouffer les pissenlits par la racine

Further reading

• “bouffer”, in Trésor de la langue française informatisé [Digitized Treasury of the French Language], 2012.