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. Not when a gilt buffet's reflected pride Turns you from sound philosophy aside. Pope.
A counter for refreshments; a restaurant at a railroad station, or place of public gathering.
A blow with the hand; a slap on the face; a cuff. When on his cheek a buffet fell. Sir W. Scott.
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. Those planks of tough and hardy oak that used for yeas to brave the buffets of the Bay of Biscay. Burke. Fortune's buffets and rewards. Shak.
A small stool; a stool for a buffet or counter. Go fetch us a light buffet. Townely Myst.
To strike with the hand or fist; to box; to beat; to cuff; to slap. They spit in his face and buffeted him. Matt. xxvi. 67.
To affect as with blows; to strike repeatedly; to strive with or contend against; as, to buffet the billows. The sudden hurricane in thunder roars, Buffets the bark, and whirls it from the shores. Broome. You are lucky fellows who can live in a dreamland of your own, instead of being buffeted about the world. W. Black.
To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.
To exercise or play at boxing; to strike; to smite; to strive; to contend. If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on like a butcher. Shak.
To make one's way by blows or struggling. Strove to buffet to land in vain. Tennyson.
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