scoff

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /skɒf/
• (US) IPA^(key): /skɔːf/
• (cot–caught merger, Inland Northern American) IPA^(key): /skɑːf/

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• Rhymes: -ɒf

From Middle English scof/skof, of North Germanic/Scandinavian origin.

Compare Old Norse skaup, Danish skuffelse(noun)/skuffe(verb) and Old High German scoph.

scoff (plural scoffs)

1. A derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.

   Synonyms: derision, ridicule; see also Thesaurus:ridicule

   • 1591 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The First Part of Henry the Sixt”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, OCLC 606515358, [Act I, scene vi], page 100, column 1:

     VVith ſcoffs 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 affrights our Children ſo.

   • 1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, The House by the Church-yard. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to III), London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], OCLC 18952474:

     '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.
   • 1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], OCLC 1029672464:

     [T]he scoff of wither'd age and beardless youth […]

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

1. (intransitive) To jeer; to laugh with contempt and derision.

   Synonym: sneer

   • 1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W. Griffin, […], OCLC 1227622017:

     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.

   Synonyms: 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. (Newfoundland, South Africa and British Army slang) Food.
2. (slang) The act of eating.
   • 2016, Fearne Cotton, Cook Happy, Cook Healthy

     Lunch for the busy has become a quick scoff of processed, terrifyingly orange couscous, […]

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

1. (Britain, Newfoundland, slang) To eat food quickly.

   Synonyms: gobble, (US) scarf

   • 2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68:

     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.

2. (Newfoundland, South Africa and British Army slang) To eat.

• scuff