1833 Proc. Old Bailey 11 Apr. 378/2 Marchell began..by saying there was a gentleman who gave a great deal of money for boys..he said, there was a gentleman in the City, too, that was one of these poofs, as he called them... I never heard the word poofs before.

?c1855 Yokel's Preceptor 5 These monsters in the shape of men, commonly designated Margeries, Pooffs, &c.

1910 S. E. O'Brien & A. G. Stephens Material for Dict. Austral. Slang 1900–10 (typescript) Pouf or poufter, a sodomite or effeminate man.

1932 W. H. Auden Orators iii. 98 Poofs and ponces, All of them dunces.

1951 I. Shaw Troubled Air xvi. 272 Don't be a traitorous old poof.

1955 G. Greene Quiet Amer. iv. ii. 241 He made a feeble attempt to mock my accent. ‘You all talk like poufs. You're so damned superior.’

1962 Private Eye 30 Nov. 15/3 I may be a poove but I'm a terrific engineer.

1978 R. Rendell Sleeping Life xiii. 109 All you can do is get your picture in the papers like some poove of a film actor.

2003 N. Slater Toast 220 ‘What are you, a fuckin poof?’ snapped Jim.

1972 F. Raphael April, June & Nov. 466 He's a late convert to the joys of poofdom.

1994 Herald (Glasgow) (Nexis) 21 June 13 All the forces of the trendy left, the self-appointed advocates of wimmin, anti-Nazism, and general poofdom.

1915 D. H. Lawrence Rainbow vi. 148 Again she poufed with mockery.

1991 J. A. Phelps Chappie xviii. 189 The engine poofed great clouds of dust into the commander's face.

1915 N.Y. World Mag. 9 May 14 Pooff, to blow up.

1923 P. G. Wodehouse Inimitable Jeeves xviii. 242 I'd seen so many of young Bingo's love affairs start off with a whoop and a rattle and poof themselves out half-way down the straight that I couldn't believe he had actually brought it off at last.

1934 P. G. Wodehouse Right ho, Jeeves xxi. 231 Then the dialogue sort of poofed out once more, and we stood eating cheese straws and cold eggs respectively in silence.

1990 Philos. Sci. 57 708 Why not rather believe that the elements poofed into existence by some mode of RH.

2003 Rocky Mountain News (Denver) (Nexis) 28 Mar. 47 a The original March 17 date was axed after Pepsi's power poofed.

1824 J. Morier Adventures Hajji Baba II. i. 39 Putting up her five fingers to his face, she said, ‘Poof! I spit on such a face.’

1829 G. Griffin Collegians I. viii. 159 Gi' me the hat, sir, an' I'll hang it up—poof, it's full of dust.

1862 H. Marryat One Year in Sweden II. 55 As for the others, poof!

1921 H. Williamson Beautiful Years 80 ‘Pouff, what a lot of rot,’ scoffed Willie.

1974 S. Coulter Château ii. xii. 359 Oh, pouff! Bravado, Madame. Sheer bravado.

1994 P. F. Alexander Alan Paton (1995) xxv. 423 ‘Halley's Comet?’ he said. ‘Poof!’ And he stumbled off to bed.

1868 E. Yates Rock Ahead i. iv ‘She will go out like that—pouf!’..blowing out an imaginary candle in explanation.

1949 P. Hastings Cases in Court v. 281 He said the three shots were fired in rapid succession or, as he put it somewhat dramatically, ‘pouf, pouf, pouf’.

1951 M. Kennedy Lucy Carmichael ii. i. 88 I get quite interested..for about 5 minutes and then—poof! I go flat like a burst balloon.

1999 M. Silcott Rave Amer. ii. 73 When all these promoters and DJs die, who will remember them? All their talk will be—pouf! All gone.

1864 C. Dickens Our Mutual Friend (1865) I. ii. v. 213 ‘The quiet!’ repeated Fledgeby, with a contemptuous turn of his head towards the City's roar. ‘And the air!’ with a ‘Poof!’ at the smoke.

1908 Westm. Gaz. 25 May 5/2 I was riding on the back of the balloon..when suddenly I heard a ‘pouff’, as if someone had blown a blast from a bellows.

1951 A. Koestler Age of Longing ii. iv. 242 Father Millet..gave a scornful poof.

1971 B. Malamud Tenants 68 [He] left so cleanly,..it seemed to Lesser as though he had willed his disappearance in a prestidigitated poof.

2001 Seattle Times (Nexis) 23 Mar. b4 The video showed a 5-inch tube containing small amounts of explosive powders..disappear in a sudden poof of smoke and dust.