What it means
To faff is to piss about with little pointless bits instead of actually doing the thing. You’re fiddling, adjusting, checking, rechecking, making a whole mini circus out of a job that should’ve been done ages ago. People usually say it as a light moan or a hurry-up, like stop faffing and get on with it.
Usage examples
"We were meant to leave at eight, but you were faffing with your hair and the satnav, now we've missed the train again, mate."
"Mum spent forty minutes faffing with the new printer cartridges and the manual, then asked dad to help and he had it sorted in three minutes flat with a tea in hand."
"Stop faffing with the kettle and just put the bag in the cup, the boss is on the call and you have been making this brew for twelve minutes already."
"I only asked you to send the email, why've you been faffing with the font for twenty minutes?"
"Come on, stop faffing about by the door or we'll be late for the pub quiz again."
Where it comes from
Faff is solidly British and goes back to older forms like faffle, found in Scots and northern dialect use in the nineteenth century for flustering, fussing, or talking in a muddled way. It later settled into modern UK slang for dithering and wasting time on small, unnecessary bits of business.
Other ways to say it
Editors of this term
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