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I'm reading "Right Ho, Jeeves" by P.G. Wodehouse and I've just encountered another phrase which I can't understand. Full sentence where this phrase is used (emphasis added by me):

In fact, not to put too fine a point upon it, I consider that of all the dashed silly, drivelling ideas I ever heard in my puff this is the most blithering and futile.

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    I love Wodehouse, but I would definitely hesitate to use him as a guide to current English usage, or even idiom. The English upper class have always considered it their privilege to use words - and spell them - however they damn' well please, and if other people don't understand, well! whose fault is that? Wodehouse came from that set, and in his Jeeves and Blandings novels he not only captures their way of speaking but takes it to new and absurd heights. Read, enjoy - definitely enjoy! - but don't be too worried if some expressions seem strange - they were meant to.
    – MT_Head
    Jun 26, 2011 at 17:21
  • I love Wodehouse too. He only had one plot, but a hundred entertaining ways of expressing it.
    – thursdaysgeek
    Jun 27, 2011 at 20:09

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I never heard this expression before, and it doesn't seem to have much currency today (but see comments below - it's still known to some in the Midlands / north of Britain).

It seems pretty clear to me the meaning is in my life, and I'd guess puff in this sense means something like breath (i.e. - for all the time I've been alive and breathing.

I would not advise using the expression, since many people (not just OP!) will probably not understand it.

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    I've never heard the phrase "in my puff" in my puff, but I think it's worth reviving. I found this from the man who coined word quark: "You never saw the like of it in all your born puff." -- James Joyce, Ulysses
    – Michael Lorton
    Jun 26, 2011 at 17:19
  • @Malvolio: Well found! Although I agree it's quite a 'nice' expression, in the final analysis I can't really endorse reviving it. Presumably many others feel the same way or it'd be current today. Anyway, of the pitifully few references in NGram, it seems most of them relate to Wodehouse in the first place, so it seems the expression never did have any real currency.
    – FumbleFingers
    Jun 26, 2011 at 18:46
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    Most British English speakers would certainly still understand "in my/your puff" -- in particular, it's still quite commonly heard in the West of Scotland. But it's really only heard in a humourous context nowadays. Here's a recent example of its usage on a football (soccer) forum from a west of Scotland poster: bbc.co.uk/dna/606/A72915393.
    – calum_b
    Jun 26, 2011 at 21:47
  • I am British too (East Midlands) and I immediately understood it--prior to reading this answer--to be a euphemism for breathing, substituting for life. I had not consciously heard the expression before.
    – Nicholas Shanks
    Jul 23, 2013 at 13:22
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The phrase "in my puff" means "in my life", as in "I've never heard such a load of rubbish in all my puff". This expression is still widely used in Scotland, especially around the West Coast, and in Glasgow in particular. It was a favoured expression of my father who was still using it up until he died, aged 70, in 2008 !

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Eric Partridge, Dictionary of Slang and Unconventional English, fifth edition (1961) has this relevant entry for puff:

puff. ... 4. Life ; existence : tailors' [slang] (low ) gen[eral use] : from ca. 1880. As in never in one's puff, never, and as in 'Pomes' Marshall, 'He's the winner right enough! It's the one sole snip of a lifetime—simply the cop of one's puff.'

So Partridge confirms that Wodehouse was using puff as a slang equivalent of "life" or "existence." This may be the first time I've seen a slang term categorized as tailors', and I regret that Partridge doesn't pursue the question of how it arose in the context of that profession.

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  • @Janus Bahs Jacquet: Thanks for the edit. I still haven't figured out how to see specific changes such as those that you made, but I presume that I may have introduced one or more typos at some point, and I'm pretty sure that I improperly switched tense from "Partridge confirms..." to "Partridge didn't..." in the last paragraph. Anyway, the answer reads correctly now, so thanks again.
    – Sven Yargs
    Aug 1, 2015 at 17:35
  • Click on the “Edited by” link, and then on the “Side-by-side preview” (or whatever it's called)—that shows you the precise changes (you'd missed the s in one’s).
    – Janus Bahs Jacquet
    Aug 1, 2015 at 17:37
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    @JanusBahsJacquet: Thanks—perfect. You'd think that I'd have known that long ago, but like Blanche DuBois I tend to depend on the kindness of strangers (not that you are strange).
    – Sven Yargs
    Aug 1, 2015 at 18:41
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Never in his/your puff did he/you do anything else. This is a common expression in the West of Scotland where I come from. It simply means in your life. Personally, I find it a delightful expression. I can't understand the talk about reviving it or not. If they'd heard someone say never in your puff, never in their puff would they dream of banning it. Over my dead body as they say and my body is not yet dead.

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