pfft.

interj.  an expression of “irritated amusement,” as in the novel The Fiery Cross by Diana Gabaldon.


interj.  an expression of skepticism, as in the novel The Cutting Room by Laurence Klavan.


n.  a color that ranges from green to purple to dark brown, as on bromeliad leaves.

<Yesterday I visited the conservatory at the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden where I saw a display of magnificent bromeliads.  They had leaves that start out green, then all of a sudden, pfft, they go purple, then pfft, they turn dark brown, then pfft, they’re green again.  I wanted to get that pfft with Rit dye ... a hot tub of pfft.  —William Daley, “March 1998,” Clay Talks: Reflections by American Master Ceramists.>

n.  a dying gasp.

<If that central computer were shut down, the entire economy goes ... pfft.  Not good for business, eh?  —Steven Barnes, The Cestus Deception.>

n.  a muffled gunshot, as with a silencer; see also phfft.

<I shot the Picasso first.  The silencer went “Pfft” and the .45 hollow point blew the canvas in half.  —James Ellroy, The Black Dahlia.> <The faint pfft, pfft of a silenced rifle reached her ear, and she knew in that instant, rolling to roadside boulders for cover, that Ismael was not dead.  —Ted Dekker, A Man Called Blessed.>

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