buffet

buffets, buffeting, buffeted

(Pronounced [[t]bʌ̱feɪ, AM bʊfe͟ɪ[/t]] for meanings 1 to 3, and [[t]bʌ̱fɪt[/t]] for meanings 4 and 5.)

1) N-COUNT: oft N n A buffet is a meal of cold food that is displayed on a long table at a party or public occasion. Guests usually serve themselves from the table.

...a buffet lunch...

A cold buffet had been laid out in the dining-room.

2) N-COUNT: oft n N A buffet is a café, usually in a hotel or station.

We sat in the station buffet sipping tea.

3) N-COUNT: usu sing On a train, the buffet or the buffet car is the carriage or car where meals and snacks are sold. [BRIT]

(in AM, use dining car)

4) VERB If something is buffeted by strong winds or by stormy seas, it is repeatedly struck or blown around by them.

[be V-ed] Their plane had been severely buffeted by storms...

[V n] Storms swept the country, closing roads, buffeting ferries and killing as many as 30 people.

Derived words:

buffeting plural N-COUNT

...the buffetings of the winds.

5) VERB If an economy or government is buffeted by difficult or unpleasant situations, it experiences many of them.

[be V-ed] The whole of Africa had been buffeted by social and political upheavals.