Thursday 6 September 2018

British English Word of the Week: faff (noun, verb)

Stop faffing about and read this!  Here's a British English word that doesn't get into the textbooks, but that is widely used and understood all over the UK.



faff (noun) - nonsense, busy activity that doesn't achieve anything

In a phrase: a lot of faff / a bit of a faff / a big faff

In a sentence: 
It's just a bit of a faff to get everything set up for the meeting.

The whole thing is just a big faff and I can't wait for it to be over.


faff about / faff around (verb) - waste time, appear to be busy but without achieving anything, make a fuss

In a sentence:
I can't get anything done while you're faffing around, either help me or go away!

I meant to start work early but I just ended up faffing about.

"What are you doing?"
"Not much.  Just faffing around on the Internet."