buffer

Definitions

• Someone or something that buffs.
• (chemistry) A solution used to stabilize the pH (acidity) of a liquid.
• (computing) A portion of memory set aside to store data, often before it is sent to an external device or as it is received from an external device.
• (mechanical) Anything used to maintain slack or isolate different objects.
• (telecommunications) A routine or storage medium used to compensate for a difference in rate of flow of data, or time of occurrence of events, when transferring data from one device to another.
• (rail) A device on trains and carriages designed to cushion the impact between them.
• (rail) The metal barrier to help prevent trains from running off the end of the track.
• An isolating circuit, often an amplifier, used to minimize the influence of a driven circuit on the driving circuit.
• (politics) A buffer zone (such as a demilitarized zone) or a buffer state.
• (colloquial) A good-humoured, slow-witted fellow, usually an elderly man.
• (figurative) A gap that isolates or separates two things.