3. Etym: [Cf. Buffer.]
Defn: To deaden the sound of (bells) by muffling the clapper.
BUFFET
Buf"fet, v. i.
1. To exercise or play at boxing; to strike; to smite; to strive; to contend. If I might buffet for my love, or bound my horse for her favors, I could lay on like a butcher. Shak.
2. To make one's way by blows or struggling. Strove to buffet to land in vain. Tennyson.
BUFFETER
Buf"fet*er, n.
Defn: One who buffets; a boxer. Jonson.
BUFFETING
Buf"fet*ing, n.
1. A striking with the hand.
2. A succession of blows; continued violence, as of winds or waves; afflictions; adversity. He seems to have been a plant of slow growth, but . . . fitted to endure the buffeting on the rudest storm. Wirt.