From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishbuffetbuf‧fet1 /ˈbʊfeɪ $ bəˈfeɪ/ ●○○ noun [countable] 1 DFa meal at a party or other occasion, in which people serve themselves at a table and then move away to eat a cold buffetbuffet breakfast/lunch/supper The price includes morning coffee, buffet lunch, and afternoon tea.2 DFTTa place in a railway station, bus station etc where you can buy and eat food or drink3 DHF American English a piece of furniture in which you keep the things you use to serve and eat a meal SYN sideboard British English
Examples from the Corpus
buffet• We'll have a buffet lunch at about one o'clock and a sit-down mean in the evening.• The cost of £35 per person includes a buffet lunch and all refreshments during the day.• We're not having a big formal meal at the wedding - just a buffet.• Try out all-you-can-eat buffet - only £5 per person• They also cater, bringing their all-you-can-eat buffet to offices nearby.• The first class restaurant offers an excellent buffet breakfast and a choice of three dinner menus.• The restaurant offers a fabulous buffet lunch.• Most trains are steam hauled by one of the railway's extensive collection of tank engines and include full buffet car facilities.• Breakfast is buffet style, and there is a choice of menu for evening meals.• Evening meals consist of excellent traditional dishes, and always include an extensive salad buffet.• A large mahogany mirror hung over the buffet.• I crossed to the buffet table that had been set up on the far side of the room.buffet breakfast/lunch/supper• The hotel's restaurant serves a buffet breakfast and a substantial and well-prepared choice of meals at other times.• The restaurant serves a buffet breakfast and dinner with a choice of menu.• Journey north through the fertile Kikuyu heartland to Nyeri where a buffet lunch will be served at the Outspan Hotel.• The bountiful buffet breakfast served each morning sets just the right note to start the day by the fresh-water swimming pool.• The first class restaurant offers an excellent buffet breakfast and a choice of three dinner menus.• Scandinavian buffet breakfast; àlacarte restaurant; pizzeria.• A splendid buffet breakfast, and a four course dinner plus salad buffet are served in the rustic style dining room.buffetbuf‧fet2 /ˈbʌfɪt/ verb [transitive] 1 HITif something, especially wind, rain, or the sea, buffets something, it hits it with a lot of force London was buffeted by storms last night. High winds buffeted the region.2 literaryUNKIND to treat someone unkindly I was weary of being buffeted by life.Grammar Buffet is often passive in meaning 1 and usually passive in meaning 2. —buffeting noun [countable, uncountable] → buffet something about→ See Verb tableExamples from the Corpus
buffet• Before I could examine them, I was buffeted by a gust of wind and rain.• Since last fall, the stock market has been buffeted by contradictory influences.• Then the prime minister's Tristar jet was buffeted by freak 200-mile-an-hour winds before being diverted from Ottawa to Montreal due to fog.• Not every small business has been buffeted by General Dynamics' downsizing.• The coastline was buffeted by strong winds.• But it has been buffeted by the recession on two counts: it is in the south-east and in the services sector.• Local businesses have been buffeted by the troubled economy.• Tossed and buffeted for six hours, and caught in an eddy in the vortex, she died of suffocation.• Heat and smoke buffeted him with welcoming arms as he entered the bar.Origin buffet1 (1700-1800) French buffet2 (1200-1300) buffet “blow, hit” ((13-21 centuries)), from Old French, from buffe “blow” 