coif
/kwɑf/
coif noun: a hairdo.
Noun
coif (plural coifs)
- A hairdo.
- He decides to muscle in on the act, styling his hair after Kirk’s signature coif (“the stupidest haircut I’ve ever seen,” says one character), trolling college girls on social media and proclaiming himself a “master-debater”.2025 August 7, Zach Vasquez, “From puppy murder to racist podcasts: South Park’s anti-deportation episode is utterly ruthless TV”, in The Guardian, →ISSN
- A hood; a close-fitting cap covering much of the head, widespread until the 18th century; after that worn only by small children and country women.
- A similar item of mail armour covering the head.
- An official headdress, such as that worn by certain judges in England.
- From point and saucy ermine down / To the plain coif and russet gown.1744, Henry Brooke, The Temple of Hymen
- The judges, […] although they are not of the first magnitude, nor need be of the degree of the coif, yet are they considerable.c. 1620, Francis Bacon, letter of advice to Sir George Villiers
Verb
coif (third-person singular simple present coifs, present participle coiffing or coifing, simple past and past participle coiffed or coifed)
- To style or arrange hair.
- Circe’s this craft, the trim-coifed goddess.1925, Ezra Pound, Canto I
- But winter can also be judged by the prominence of another scourge, one that is especially irksome in a city that places a premium on being well-groomed and immaculately coiffed: hat hair.2003 February 17, Elissa Gootman, “A Chill Most Bitter: Learning to Accept Hat Hair”, in The New York Times, archived from the original on 27 May 2015
coif meaning in Tamil and Persian
coif in Tamil
- ஆக்ஃசுபோர்டு அகராதி
coif in Persian
- hood
- کلوته kolute
Examples of coif in a sentence
- The knight at Chaddesley Corbett even wears the same combination of fillet around the coif and cervelliere underneath (Figure 32).
- From her dark rimmed Harry Potteresque glasses to her well coiffed hair, this is a mother on the go.
- My mom pushed her perfectly coiffed head through the doorway, and flashed me a blinding Mary Poppins-esque smile.
Forms of coif
| Noun | |
|---|---|
| plural | coifs |
| alternative form | coiffe |
| alternative form | quiff |
| alternative form | quaff |
| alternative form | quoife |
| Verb | |
| third-person singular present | coifs |
| present participle | coiffing |
| present participle | coifing |
| past participle | coiffed |
| past | coiffed |
| past participle | coifed |
| past | coifed |
Origin of coif
From Middle English coif, coife, coyf, coyfe, coyffe, from Old French coife, coiffe, from Late Latin cofia, from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, related to Old High German kupphia, kupha, kupfe (“mug, hood, cap”), from Proto-Germanic *kuppijǭ (“cap, hat, bonnet, headpiece”), Proto-Germanic *kuppō (“vat, mug, cup”), from pre-Germanic *kubná-, from Proto-Indo-European *gup- (“round object, knoll”), from Proto-Indo-European *gew- (“to bend, curve, arch, vault”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe (“cap, headgear, helmet”).
From Middle English coifen, from Old French coifier, from the noun (see above).
Words formed from coif
Words that rhyme with coif
Questions about coif
- What does coif mean?
- Coif means a hairdo.
- What is coif in Tamil?
- Coif in Tamil is ஆக்ஃசுபோர்டு அகராதி. See Coif meaning in Tamil.
- What part of speech is coif?
- Coif can be a noun or a verb.
- How do you pronounce coif?
- Coif is pronounced /kwɑf/.
- What is the plural of coif?
- The plural of coif is coifs.
Words near coif in the dictionary
Source and license
Adapted from Wiktionary: coif (page history and authors); coif (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.
Last updated:
Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-us-coif.ogg, LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-coif.wav.
Cite this entry: “coif.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/coif. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.