How to Use puffery in a Sentence

puffery

noun
  • No more of those puffery deadlines that have no stake in the ground.
    — Lance Eliot, Forbes, 4 Nov. 2021
  • Even volcanoes known for such puffery don’t make rings all the time.
    — Carolyn Wilke, New York Times, 21 Mar. 2023
  • Such was the backlash against its puffery that it was forced to scrap its flotation.
    — The Economist, 31 Mar. 2021
  • Investors seem to view his penchant for puffery as a feature rather than a bug.
    — The Editorial Board, WSJ, 28 Sep. 2018
  • As for hog-tying Whitmer, that was puffery, the defense lawyer claimed.
    — Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, 5 Apr. 2022
  • Trump’s public persona has been geared toward manic puffery of his own success.
    — Jonathan Chait, Daily Intelligencer, 28 June 2018
  • But while those profiles are useful, some people see them as a little more than organized puffery.
    — Smriti Rao, Discover Magazine, 1 Apr. 2010
  • Chutkow also touched on the defense's claims that this case was all about puffery, big talkers engaged in tough talk and blowing off steam.
    — Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, 6 Apr. 2022
  • To some extent, all party Conventions are pageants of paradox and puffery.
    — Andrew Marantz, The New Yorker, 27 Aug. 2020
  • But the suggestion that there is just one worthy candidate is puffery that disrespects both of them.
    — Bill Shaikin, Los Angeles Times, 19 Sep. 2022
  • The defense says this was all puffery, wanna-be military guys who talked a big game and tried to impress one another.
    — Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press, 10 Mar. 2022
  • Defense lawyers have maintained that their clients were not part of any real plot to harm anyone, and that they were merely engaged in puffery and tough talk.
    — Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, 16 Jan. 2021
  • And as companies try to ride the boom, investors should expect to sort through a lot of AI-ish-sounding puffery.
    — Vildana Hajric, Bloomberg.com, 8 June 2023
  • The defendants also have argued that they were merely engaged in puffery, tough talk, and that this case has been blown out of proportion.
    — Tresa Baldas, Detroit Free Press, 8 Mar. 2022
  • This attitude puts the pomp and puffery of premium economy into sharp relief.
    — Mac Schwerin, The Atlantic, 29 May 2022
  • Finally, after diving headfirst into bravado and chest puffery all episode, Axe grits his teeth.
    — refinery29.com, 21 May 2018
  • Embedded in all this puffery was Lyft’s rationale for refusing a refund.
    — Sean P. Murphy, BostonGlobe.com, 2 Oct. 2022
  • Trump, perhaps the most animalistic of spirits, may think his constant puffery is boosting markets.
    — Anchorage Daily News, 11 Jan. 2018
  • The nearly 500 pages that follow are rife with this kind of self-congratulatory puffery.
    — Peter Bergen, CNN, 29 Aug. 2022
  • The defense has argued that the defendants were merely blowing off steam, and that they were engaged in puffery and tough talk, with no real plan to harm anyone.
    — Arpan Lobo, Detroit Free Press, 30 Mar. 2022
  • In a world of puffery, fakery and deception, even a calamitous dose of reality can feel, on some level, reassuring.
    — Sam Anderson, New York Times, 3 July 2019
  • But overall, there should be a substantial amount of sizzle — or at least copious amounts of hot air and puffery — coming from next week’s upfront presentations.
    — Josef Adalian, Vulture, 10 May 2024
  • The defendants have been described by one defense lawyer as being video gamers and recreational gun enthusiasts who were engaged in puffery, nothing else.
    — Tresa Baldas, Freep.com, 3 Nov. 2025
  • This was a piece of puffery that happened to accord with a long-standing and actually pretty important argument about the nature of the country.
    — Christopher Hooks, Harpers Magazine, 23 June 2026
  • Defense lawyers have argued that the defendants had no real plan to kidnap the governor, but were only blowing off steam, talking tough and engaging in puffery.
    — Tresa Baldas, USA TODAY, 28 Jan. 2021
  • Along the way, his puffery often came with unfortunate consequences for average people who could not distinguish truth from hyperbole.
    — New York Times, 16 Feb. 2022
  • Tasked with the surreal job of heroizing a product in 30 or 60 seconds, the best of them spin elegant arguments out of puffery.
    — Mac Schwerin, The Atlantic, 24 Aug. 2020
  • But management also decided against trying to brag about these network-level changes with new status-bar icons or other sorts of customer-experience puffery.
    — Rob Pegoraro, PC Magazine, 9 Mar. 2026
  • The managers of alternative investments and pension overseers are complicit in the performance puffery.
    — Edward Siedle, Forbes, 21 May 2021
  • The men and women of this sprawling northern county—England's largest—are known for their self-deprecating humor, and love to stick a pin in any kind of puffery, especially their own.
    — Joshua Levine, Travel + Leisure, 7 Mar. 2021

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'puffery.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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