from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
noun A to-do or fuss.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
noun A disorderlyoutburst, disturbance, commotion or tumult.
from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.
noun a disorderly outburst or tumult
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
[Scots, variant of curfuffle : cur-, intensive pref. (from Scots Gaelic car, twist, turn about, from Old Irish cor, a turn; see sker- in Indo-European roots) + fuffle, put into disorder (of imitative origin).]
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
Probably from Scots curfuffle, equivalent to ker- + fuffle, or related to Irish cior thual ("char athwart: confusion, disorder"). Similar to modern Welsh cythrwfl ("uproar, trouble, agitation")
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Examples
My mate Steve the plumber dared me to get the word "kerfuffle" into my analysis, which I thought was very funny.
The kerfuffle is leaving me cold, I'll admit: I'm a small-r republican, and would like us to shed the last of our feudal, imperial shackles, lightly-worn though they be.
So I think the Stone Age kerfuffle is worth pushing on, especially since some of the "crucial information" that you identified rubs up against Nagin's need to be more transparent.
Update: Btw, the politically important feature of this kerfuffle is McCain's confusion -- not knowing how many houses he owns -- rather than the fact that he is rich (by virtue of his wife's inherited wealth).
Update: Btw, the politically important feature of this kerfuffle is McCain's confusion -- not knowing how many houses he owns -- rather than the fact that he is rich (by virtue of his wife's inherited wealth).
Way up there Steve Sailer said that this kerfuffle is made for a lot of whites to engage in moral preening about wonderfully sophisticately sensitive they are compared to other whites, who are so deplorable.
A kerfuffle implies something of little importance; a conflict that can be ignored as inconsequential. The use of the word is dismissive of the underlying conflict.
arby commented on the word kerfuffle
Also spelled kerfluffle, but I prefer this spelling.
July 18, 2007
garyth123 commented on the word kerfuffle
as heard on Little Britain
December 10, 2008
lbutlr commented on the word kerfuffle
A kerfuffle implies something of little importance; a conflict that can be ignored as inconsequential. The use of the word is dismissive of the underlying conflict.
July 14, 2009
lexylou commented on the word kerfuffle
if kerfuffle implies a dust-up, then kerfluffle implies a dust-up involving pillows.
August 6, 2009
hernesheir commented on the word kerfuffle
What about a nerfuffle?
August 6, 2009
reesetee commented on the word kerfuffle
Or it could be a dust-up involving this.
August 6, 2009
blueburner commented on the word kerfuffle
How would you profile the person who uses the word kerfuffle?
January 1, 2014
bilby commented on the word kerfuffle
If they could successfully pronounce cythrwfl, I'd call them brilliant.
January 1, 2014