noun

• (slang, archaic, Ireland) A boxer.
  "Such a buffer as Donnelly, / Ereland never again will see."

noun

• Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
• Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
• Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
  "1885, W. S. Gilbert, The Mikado, Act II, in The Mikado, and Other Plays, New York: Modern Library, 1917, p. 42, https://archive.org/details/mikadootherplays00gilb The idiot who, in railway carriages, / Scribbles on window panes, / We only suffer / To ride on a buffer / In Parliamentary trains."
• Anything used to isolate or minimize the effect of one thing on another.
  "Of course, I was not always right. I questioned the value of Crossrail (a scheme revived by Prescott after being scrapped by the Conservatives), suggesting wrongly that it may be "doomed to hit the buffers" […]. A dozen years later, I published my book on it, extolling the line's wonders. We are all allowed to change our minds."

verb

• To use a buffer or buffers; to isolate or minimize the effects of one thing on another.
  "Some games let you buffer jumps—if you hold the jump button mid-air, your character will jump as soon as they touch the ground."
• (transitive or intransitive, computing) To store (data) in memory temporarily while it is awaiting processing.
• (chemistry) To maintain the acidity of a solution near a chosen value by adding an acid or a base.

noun

• (colloquial) A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
  "Lastly, the looking-glass reflects Boots and Brewer, and two other stuffed Buffers interposed between the rest of the company and possible accidents."