One Little Nail
Puritan Board Sophomore
Robert. Webster's 1828 adds this definition:
1. To beat in contention; to contend against; as, to buffet the billows.
I don't know if there is any commentator that thinks Paul was physically beaten, and I doubt that is what the KJV translators meant.
Logan I'm not saying that he received physical beatings, though he was spiritually buffeted by a devil. I think when a person is buffeted in the physical, he is generally on the receiving end, Paul had some heavy handed spiritual oppression dished out to him by some messenger of satan or fallen angel, he was not being superstitious as some have suggested, it seems even to have manifested itself physically, as Paul describes it as a "thorn in the flesh".