in a huff

In an angry, belligerent, or vexed manner. Don't go off in a huff like that, it was only a joke! Mary went off in a huff after her wife criticized her cooking. What is he in a huff about now? It seems like the littlest things set him off.

See also: huff

*in a huff

Fig. in an angry or offended manner. (*Typically: be ~; get [into] ~.) He heard what we had to say, then left in a huff. She came in a huff and ordered us to bring her something to eat.

See also: huff

in a huff

In an offended manner, angrily, as in When he left out her name, she stalked out in a huff. This idiom transfers huff in the sense of a gust of wind to a burst of anger. [Late 1600s] Also see in a snit.

See also: huff

The American Heritage® Dictionary of Idioms by Christine Ammer. Copyright © 2003, 1997 by The Christine Ammer 1992 Trust. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

in a huff

INFORMAL

COMMON If someone is in a huff, they are angry about something. He stormed off in a huff because he didn't win. He resigned from the firm in a huff when he didn't get promoted.

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Collins COBUILD Idioms Dictionary, 3rd ed. © HarperCollins Publishers 2012

in a ˈhuff

(informal) in a bad mood, especially because somebody has annoyed or upset you: She went off in a huff.

See also: huff

in a huff

Angry. The verb to huff in the late 1500s meant to bluster, or blow out puffs of breath in anger. It thus appeared in the nursery tale of The Three Little Pigs, in which the wolf threatened, “I’ll huff and I’ll puff and I’ll blow your house in” (published in J. Jacobs, English Fairy Tales, 1890). The noun usage with the current meaning of “angry” was first recorded in 1599 and has been so used ever since.

See also: huff

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