/skɒf/, /skɔːf/, /skɑːf/
OriginFrom Middle English scof, skof, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse skaup, Old Danish skof, Old Frisian skof (“insult, shame”), and Old High German scoph.
- A derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
“VVith ſcoffes and ſcornes, and contumelious taunts, / In open Market-place produc't they me, / To be a publique ſpectacle to all: / Here, ſayd they, is the Terror of the French, / The Scar-Crovv that ”
“"I believe you've killed that constable in the exercise of his duty, sir; the man's dead;" said Lowe, sternly. / "Another gloss on my text; why invade me like house-breakers?" said Dangerfield, with a”
“There were sneers, and scoffs, and inuendoes of some; prophecies of failure in a hundred ways […]”
- An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.
“[T]he scoff of wither'd age and beardless youth […]”
- British-Army, Newfoundland, South-Africa, countable, slangFood.
- countable, slang, uncountableThe act of eating.
“Lunch for the busy has become a quick scoff of processed, terrifyingly orange couscous, […]”
- intransitiveTo jeer; to laugh with contempt and derision.
“Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, / And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.”
- transitiveTo mock; to treat with scorn.
- British, Newfoundland, slangTo eat food quickly.
“The numbers thin out the further we get from London, so I don't feel guilty when I remove my mask momentarily to scoff some of the snacks I'd bought at Marylebone.”
- British-Army, Newfoundland, South-Africa, slangTo eat.
Formsscoffs(plural) · scoffs(present, singular, third-person) · scoffing(participle, present) · scoffed(participle, past) · scoffed(past)