English

Interjection

no duff

1. (Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, military slang, radio voice procedure) Indicating that this is not a drill or training exercise.
   • 2001, Ska Child and David Harris, Skavoovee, Victoria, B.C.: Trafford Publishing, p 152:

     “Sunray, No Duff, No Duff, No Duff. We need a medic, we’ve got a man down. Wound to the upper arm, and major blood loss. Over.” ¶ All the other chatter on all the radios went dead with the ‘No Duff.’ It was the signal for a medical emergency.

   • 2011, Gloria Galloway, “When troops heard ‘no duff,’ they knew Resolute Bay rescue wasn’t an exercise”, in The Globe and Mail, August 24:

     “Someone grabbed me from behind and said ‘No duff,’ which means this is real,” said LCdr. Wong. “That’s what everybody heard, ‘Plane crash, 737,’ and all of us started running to our posts,” he told reporters after Prime Minister Stephen Harper arrived here to commend those who raced to the scene.

Noun

no duff ‎(uncountable)

1. (Britain, Ireland, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, military slang, radio voice procedure) An incident that is not a drill or training exercise; an emergency.
   • 1999, Scott Taylor, Canada at War and Peace: A Millennium of Military Heritage, v 3, Ottawa: Esprit de Corps Books, p 140:

     “Get him in here, and radio a ‘no duff’ [casualty] to HQ.”

   • 2003, “Jordie Yeo: Master Corporal” in John Wood ed., The Chance of War: Canadian Soldiers in the Balkans, 1992–1995, Dundurn Press:

     [p 224] I called on the radio and — this was the most horrifying part of this — I couldn’t reach my observation post where my guys were. But I did get the command post in the middle of Srebrenica. I told them, “This is a no duff situation. You’ve got two men down and we’re on the trail.’

     [p 236, glossary] No duff  The radio code words used to get people off the air because a serious incident has occurred.