scoff

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skɒf/
• (US) IPA^(key): /skɔːf/
• (cot–caught merger, northern cities vowel shift) IPA^(key): /skɑːf/

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• Rhymes: -ɒf

From Middle English scof/skof, of Scandinavian origin. Compare Old Norse skaup, Danish skuffelse(noun)/skuffe(verb) and Old High German scoph.

scoff (plural scoffs)

1. Derision; ridicule; a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
   • Shakespeare

     With scoffs, and scorns, and contumelious taunts.

   • 1863, Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Churchyard

     '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 housebreakers?' said Dangerfield with a grim scoff.

   • 1852, The Dublin University Magazine (page 66)

     There were sneers, and scoffs, and inuendoes of some; prophecies of failure in a hundred ways […]

2. An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.
   • Cowper

     The scoff of withered age and beardless youth.

• (derision, ridicule): derision, ridicule
• See also Thesaurus:ridicule

scoff (third-person singular simple present scoffs, present participle scoffing, simple past and past participle scoffed)

1. (intransitive) To jeer; laugh at with contempt and derision.
   • Goldsmith

     Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, / And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.

2. (transitive) To mock; to treat with scorn.

• (to jeer, laugh at): sneer
• (to mock, scorn): contemn, deride

A variant, attested since the mid 19th century, of scaff, of uncertain origin.[1][2] Compare scarf (“eat quickly”).

scoff (countable and uncountable, plural scoffs)

1. (South Africa and British Army slang) Food.

scoff (third-person singular simple present scoffs, present participle scoffing, simple past and past participle scoffed)

1. (Britain, slang) To eat food quickly.
2. (South Africa and British Army slang) To eat.

• (eat quickly): gobble, scarf (US)

• scuff