scoff
verb /skɒf/
/skɑːf/
Verb Forms
| present simple I / you / we / they scoff | /skɒf/ /skɑːf/ |
| he / she / it scoffs | /skɒfs/ /skɑːfs/ |
| past simple scoffed | /skɒft/ /skɑːft/ |
| past participle scoffed | /skɒft/ /skɑːft/ |
| -ing form scoffing | /ˈskɒfɪŋ/ /ˈskɑːfɪŋ/ |
- [intransitive, transitive] to talk about somebody/something in a way that makes it clear that you think they are stupid or silly synonym mock
- Don't scoff—she's absolutely right.
- scoff at somebody/something He scoffed at our amateurish attempts.
- + speech ‘Don't be ridiculous,’ she scoffed.
- (British English) (North American English scarf)[transitive] scoff something (informal) to eat a lot of something quickly
- Who scoffed all the grapes?
Word Originsense 1 Middle English (first used as a noun in the sense ‘mockery, scorn’): perhaps of Scandinavian origin.sense 2 late 18th cent. (as a verb): originally a variant of Scots and dialect scaff. The noun is from Afrikaans schoff, representing Dutch schoft ‘quarter of a day’, (by extension) ‘meal’.