English edit

Verb edit

Bower-Barff (third-person singular simple present Bower-Barffs, present participle Bower-Barffing, simple past and past participle Bower-Barffed)

  1. (transitive) To subject (metal) to the Bower-Barff process for reducing corrosion.
    Synonym: Barff
    • 1883, Minutes of Proceedings of the Institution of Civil Engineers:
      It will no doubt be obvious that the cost of oxidizing by the Bower or Barff process — or, to use a more abbreviated expression, Bower-Barffing — varies considerably; for example, one thousand small articles may be treated at the same time, and in the same cubical space, that might be occupied by a single large article; []