duffer

adj

Etymology: Cognate with duff, which see (origin is uncertain).

1. comparative form of duff: more duff

name

1. A surname.

noun

Etymology: Cognate with duff, which see (origin is uncertain).

1. An incompetent, indolent, or clumsy person.

   “Besides, I was anxious to take the wheel, the man in pink pyjamas showing himself a hopeless duffer at the business.”

2. A player having little skill, especially a golfer who duffs.

   “4. P-N5 BxP Clearly, Duras intends to have his fun with this duffer.”

3. A pedlar or hawker, especially one selling cheap or substandard goods.

   “Among them are several distinct and peculiar street-characters, such as the pack-men, who carry their cotton or linen goods in packs on their backs, and are all itinerants. Then there are duffers, who vend pretended smuggled goods, handkerchiefs, silks, tobacco or cigars; also, the sellers of sham sovereigns and sham gold rings for wagers.”

4. Cheap or substandard goods sold by a duffer.
5. Anything substandard, such as a counterfeit or a defective instance.
6. A cow that does not produce milk or produces substantially less than her peers do.

   “We have some good cows in this State, but, unfortunately, we have too many duffer cows that are not only being fed and milked at a loss but are eating up a portion of the profit of the good cow which is being milked alongside them.”

   “The truth is that cattlemen love a typical cow for her beauty and symmetry of form; but every herd-testing dairyman knows that an ugly animal may be a good producer, while many a beautiful cow is a duffer.”

7. A cattle thief or thief of other livestock; one who alters the brands of cattle.

   “Judy was an associate (‘stud’) of a Whitefella cattle duffer named Brigalow Bill (aka WJJ Ward).”

   “In the mid-1860s a duffer named James Harnell, who went by the nickname Narran Jim, had taken stock he′d stolen from the district around Culgoa and Narran rivers across Queensland to the Cooper.[…]An alert Bulloo Downs stockman contacted the police, and when Police Inspector Fitzgerald and eight Aboriginal troopers tracked Narran Jim and surrounded him while he was sleeping, the cattle duffer woke to find himself looking down the barrel of Fitzgerald′s revolver and seven years in jail.”

8. A racing pigeon that does not perform well.
9. Any of various nymphalid butterflies of the genus Discophora.