diff

noun

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, slang, uncountable)Clipping of difference

   “A peach and an apricot? What's the diff?”

   “MrX provided close to 100 diffs presented in a lengthy brief divided into sections.”

2. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, uncountable)Clipping of differential

   “This function takes that diff and plugs it into the larger structure.”

   “[Pogo:] A woman outthunk is a woman scorned and you know what's got no fury like that! [...] Mus' I tell you? It's Sunday. [Albert:] What's the diff? Tell away. [Pogo, whispering:] Hell.”

3. (countable, slang, uncountable)Used to trash-talk an opposing team at the end of a game by pointing out a skill difference between some role and the same role on the other team.

   “tank diff (i.e., the deciding factor in the game was the difference in skill between the teams' tank players)”

4. (countable, uncountable)Any program which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.
5. (countable, uncountable)The output of a diff program, a diff file.

   “edit diff”

   “I didn't want to waste people's time telling them things they already knew. It's more efficient just to give them the diffs.”

6. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable)Abbreviation of differential: the differential gear in an automobile.

   “This diff is capable of locking up when wheel slip occurs.”

   “Many operators cursed the early diff and driveline set-ups[.]”

7. (abbreviation, alt-of, countable, uncountable)Abbreviation of differential: differential of types of white blood cell in a complete blood count.

   “CBC with diff”

   “Hemoccult emesis and stool, CBC with diff, PT/PTT, type and cross for PRBCs.”

8. (countable, uncountable)A difficult route.
9. (abbreviation, alt-of, clipping, countable, slang, uncountable)Clipping of difficulty.

verb

1. (transitive)To run a diff program on (files or items) so as to produce a description of the differences between them, as for a patch file.

   “As we move through this chapter, you will quickly see the benefits of diffing code changes to drivers, libraries, and applications.”

2. (transitive)To compare two files or other objects, manually or otherwise.
3. (slang, transitive)To win (or to be able to win) a fight against another, with a defined level of difficulty. Usually used when power scaling fictional characters.

adj

1. (abbreviation, alt-of, not-comparable)Abbreviation of different.

   “I don't think it's any diff then in grade school when someone said "come on take a drag it will make you look cool"”

   “Is there a way to tell it to pick a diff one by default?”

name

1. A program, historically part of the Unix operating system, which compares two files or sets of files and outputs a description of the differences between them.