doffing

Verb

doff (third-person singular simple present doffs, present participle doffing, simple past and past participle doffed)

1. (transitive) To remove or take off (something worn on the body such as armour or clothing, or something carried).
   • […] Calidore perceiuing, thought it beſt / To chaunge the manner of his loftie looke; / And doffing his bright armes, himſelfe addreſt / In ſhepheards vveed, and in his hand he tooke, / In ſtead of ſteelehead ſpeare, a ſhepheards hooke, […]1596, Edmund Spenser, “Book VI, Canto IX”, in The Faerie Queene. […], part II (books IV–VI), London: […] [Richard Field] for William Ponsonby, →OCLC, stanza 36, page 476

   Antonyms:

   don, put on

   1. (transitive) To remove or tip (a hat or other headwear) in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect.
      • The rustics doffed their hats at the clergy.
2. (dialectal, reflexive, transitive, archaic except UK) To undress (oneself); to divest, to strip.
   • VVhy art thou troubled Herod? vvhat vaine feare / Thy blood-revolving Breſt to rage doth move? / Heavens King, vvho doffs himſelfe vveake fleſh to vveare, / Comes not to rule in vvrath, but ſerve in love.1646, Richard Crashaw, “Sospetto d’Herode. Libro Primo.”, in Steps to the Temple. Sacred Poems, with Other Delights of the Muses, London: […] T. W. for Humphrey Moseley, […], →OCLC, stanza 65, page 72
3. (figuratively, transitive) To cast aside or get rid of (something), to throw off.
   • Doff that stupid idea: it will never work.
4. (transitive) To remove (a bobbin or spindle which is full of spun yarn) from a spinning frame for replacement with an empty one.
5. (transitive) To remove (small pieces of cotton or other plant fibre, etc.) from a carding cylinder.

See all 10 meanings of doff