puffball Meaning, Definition & Usage

  1. noun any of various fungi of the family Lycoperdaceae whose round fruiting body discharges a cloud of spores when mature
    true puffball.
  2. noun any of various fungi of the genus Scleroderma having hard-skinned subterranean fruiting bodies resembling truffles
    hard-skinned puffball; earthball; false truffle.

WordNet

Puff"ball` noun
Definitions
  1. (Bot.) A kind of ball-shaped fungus (Lycoperdon giganteum, and other species of the same genus) full of dustlike spores when ripe; -- called also bullfist, bullfice, puckfist, puff, and puffin.

Webster 1913