bumf

Definition

Useless papers; now especially official documents, standardized forms, sales and marketing print material, etc.

Etymology

Clipping of bumfodder.

Example Sentences

• "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."
• "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%."
• "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”."

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