Dictionary.com
Thesaurus.com

puff-puff

British  

noun

  1. a children's name for a steam locomotive or railway train

"Collins English Dictionary — Complete & Unabridged" 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

The idea of two attempts was a joke, she told the BBC, but frying a record number of puff-puff - a soft round deep-fried dough like a donut - has now taken firm root in her mind.

From BBC

Likewise balls of fried dough, here called puff-puff, speak to all nations; these have a tinge of nutmeg and an unexpected density.

From New York Times

Among the dishes on Wey’s menu were dodo and ayamase, or fried plantains with green peppers and locust bean sauce; okra in a seafood broth; chicken wings with a red pepper-tomato sauce; jollof rice, stewed in a tomato sauce; and puff-puff, which he explained were akin to Ni­ger­ian doughnuts, for dessert.

From Washington Post

The steam engines “would go puff-puff under the bridge we walked on,” he said.

From The New Yorker

Puff-puff! puff-puff! hum-m-m! as the fly-wheel whizzed round with a sudden ease in working.

From Project Gutenberg