puffball

English

Gem-studded puffball (Lycoperdon perlatum).

Etymology

From puff +‎ ball.

Noun

puffball (plural puffballs)

1. Any of various fungi that produce a cloud of brown dust-like spores from their mature fruiting bodies.
2. (figurative) Something lacking substance.
   • 1990, Wayne Jancik, The Billboard Book of One-Hit Wonders, →ISBN, page 371:

     Scads of souls thought the record was yet another puffball from ex-Beatle Paul.

Derived terms

• brown puffball
• dwarf puffball
• fen puffball
• grey puffball
• paltry puffball
• puffball skirt
• stalked puffball
• true puffball
• tumbling puffball

 

Translations

any of various fungi

• Breton: louf-bleiz m, puferig m
• Bulgarian: праханка f (prahanka)
• Catalan: pet de llop m
• Czech: pýchavka f
• Dutch: stuifzwam (nl) m
• Finnish: tuhkelo (fi)
• French: vesse-de-loup (fr) f
• German: Bofist (de) m, Bovist (de) m, Stäubling m
• Greek:

  Ancient: πέζις f (pézis)

• Hungarian: pöfeteg (hu)
• Irish: béiceadán m, bolg béice m, bolgán béice m
• Italian: vescia f
• Kazakh: жаңбыршы (jañbyrşy)
• Latvian: pūpēdis m
• Maori: tūtaeatua
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: røksopp m, røyksopp m

  Nynorsk: røyksopp m

• Ojibwe: anang
• Polish: kurzawka (pl) f, purchawka (pl) f
• Portuguese: bexiga-de-lobo f, bufa-de-lobo f, licoperdo m
• Romansch: bovist m
• Russian: дождеви́к (ru) m (doždevík), де́душкин таба́к m (déduškin tabák)
• Scottish Gaelic: balg-péiteach m, balg-smùid m, balg-séididh m
• Slovak: prášivka f
• Spanish: pedo de lobo m, cuesco de lobo m
• Swedish: röksvamp c
• Turkish: toz mantarı
• Welsh: coden fwg f, chwysigen fwg f

Further reading

• puffball on Wikipedia.Wikipedia