pfft.

n.  the sputter of an airplane engine.

<There’s always something important and dramatic about those engines going pfft—it’s like the whole world is watching you.  —John Travolta, quoted in John Travolta: Back in Character by Wensley Clarkson.>

n.  the whizzing of tranquilizer darts, as described in the novel Cons, Scams, and Grifts by Joe Gores.


n.  the whoosh of a tossed hand grenade, as described in Tanks for the Memories by Aaron Elson.


v.  the bouncing of a moth.

<The moth bounced against a row of books: pfft, pfft, pfft.  —Andrea Barrett, The Voyage of the Narwhal>

v.  the spray painting of graffiti.

<At night, a figure in dungarees with a mop of shaggy hair would have shaken a canister and angrily, joyfully, sprayed graffiti on the substation: pfft!  —Francesca Ferguson, Deutschlandscape>

v.  to break through; to surpass.

<Remember what Viola Spolin, the actress, teacher, and originator of improvisational theater, said: “First teach a person to develop to the point of his limitations and then—pfft!—break the limitations.  —Michael Levine, Guerrilla P.R. Wired: Waging a Successful Publicity Campaign On-Line, Offline, and Everywhere In Between.>

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