Dictionary

bumf en · NOUN

Pronunciation

• /bʌmf/ (UK)
• (Southern-England) audio

Etymology

Clipping of bumfodder.

Meanings

1. (derogatory, uncountable) Useless papers; now especially official documents, standardized forms, sales and marketing print material, etc.
   • I say all this as someone who wishes the right had won one or two more of its battles. It would be just grand to visit a museum without having to fend off tendentious bumf about “power structures”. 2025 June 7, Janan Ganesh, “William Buckley and the revolution that wasn’t”, in FT Weekend (Life & Arts section), London: The Financial Times Ltd., →ISSN, →OCLC, page 21:
   • And as for the limited warnings on documents and signs – we are so used to reading this bumf we fail to realise when they mean business. 2006: Quest, Richard, A Sour Taste in the Mouth, CNN.com, October 28, 2006
   • In America alone, people spent $170 billion on “direct marketing”—junk mail of both the physical and electronic varieties—last year. Yet of those who received unsolicited adverts through the post, only 3% bought anything as a result. If the bumf arrived electronically, the take-up rate was 0.1%. And for online adverts the “conversion” into sales was a minuscule 0.01%. 2013 May 25, “No hiding place”, in The Economist, volume 407, number 8837, page 74:
2. (Ireland, UK, obsolete, uncountable) Toilet paper.

Forms

Relateds

spam · junk mail · unsolicited commercial email

Translations (4)

pl papierzyska (useless documents) · fr paperasse (useless documents) · cs lejstra (useless documents) · de Papierkram (useless documents)