Word.ws English Dictionary

scoff

UK/skɒf//skɔːf/

scoff noun: a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.

Noun (1)

scoff (plural scoffs)

  1. A derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
    • VVith ſcoffes 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.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]...
    • "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 house-breakers?" said Dangerfield, with a grim scoff.1863, J[oseph] Sheridan Le Fanu, “The Wher-wolf”, in The House by the Church-yard. […], volume III, London: Tinsley, Brothers, […], →OCLC, page 200
  2. An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.
    • [T]he scoff of wither'd age and beardless youth […]1782, William Cowper, “Hope”, in Poems, London: […] J[oseph] Johnson, […], →OCLC

Verb (1)

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.
    • Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, / And fools who came to scoff, remained to pray.1770, [Oliver] Goldsmith, The Deserted Village, a Poem, London: […] W[illiam] Griffin, […], →OCLC
    Synonyms:
    laugh at, sneer, gird, jeer, jibe, scorn
  2. (transitive) To mock; to treat with scorn.

Noun (2)

scoff (countable and uncountable, plural scoffs)

  1. (British-Army, Newfoundland, South Africa, slang) Food.
  2. (slang) The act of eating.
    • Lunch for the busy has become a quick scoff of processed, terrifyingly orange couscous, […]2016, Fearne Cotton, Cook Happy, Cook Healthy

Verb (2)

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

  1. (Australia, Newfoundland, UK, slang) To eat food quickly.
    • ‘You got to own that this old Orlando Boop’s pretty hot stuff, having it out with the Baron for scoffing all the best food at his table.’1936, Norman Lindsay, The Flyaway Highway, Sydney: Angus and Robertson, page 84
    • 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.2020 December 2, Paul Bigland, “My weirdest and wackiest Rover yet”, in Rail, page 68
    Synonyms:
    gobble, scarf
  2. (British-Army, Newfoundland, South Africa, slang) To eat.

scoff meaning in Tamil, Urdu, Bengali and Malayalam

scoff in Tamil

இழித்துரை, ஏளன உரை, ஏளனம் செய், நையாண்டி

scoff in Urdu

چوٹ, مذاق, مضحکہ, تمسخر, چوٹ کسنا, مضحکہ اڑانا

scoff in Bengali

উপহাস করা, অবজ্ঞা করা

scoff in Malayalam

ridicule, mock, deride
അപഹസിക്കുക, അവഹസിക്കുക, നിന്ദാപൂർവം പൊട്ടിച്ചിരിക്കുക, പരിഹസിക്കുക, കളിയാക്കുക, ആക്ഷേപിക്കുക
More languagesFewer languages
scoff in Kannada
ಹೀಯಾಳಿಸು, ಗೇಲಿ ಮಾಡು, ಕಡೆಗಣಿಸಿ ಮಾತನಾಡು, ಅಲ್ಲಗಳೆಯು
scoff in Indonesian
sindiran, menyindir

Examples of scoff in a sentence

  • He scoffs at his peers’ dystopian scenarios of supercharged misinformation and even, eventually, human extinction.
  • I scoff these as a mid-afternoon snack, as part of a 'picky tea' or even just because.
  • I think it’s possible.’ ‘You watch too much internet,’ Roly scoffed and they walked on in silence.

All 27 example sentences with scoff

Synonyms of scoff

30 more synonymsFewer synonyms

All synonyms of scoff

Forms of scoff

Noun
pluralscoffs
Verb
third-person singular presentscoffs
present participlescoffing
past participlescoffed
pastscoffed

Past tense of scoff: scoffed

Plural of scoff: scoffs

Origin of scoff

From Middle English scof, skof, probably of North Germanic origin. Compare Old Norse skaup, Old Danish skof, Old Frisian skof (“insult, shame”), and Old High German scoph.

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

Words formed from scoff

Words that rhyme with scoff

6 more rhymesFewer rhymes

Questions about scoff

What does scoff mean?
Scoff means a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
What is scoff in Tamil?
Scoff in Tamil is இழித்துரை, ஏளன உரை, ஏளனம் செய். See Scoff meaning in Tamil.
What part of speech is scoff?
Scoff can be a noun or a verb.
How do you pronounce scoff?
Scoff is pronounced /skɒf/ (UK).
What is the plural of scoff?
The plural of scoff is scoffs.

Words near scoff in the dictionary

  1. scobs someone's knob
  2. scoby
  3. SCOBYs
  4. Scocca
  5. Scoccas
  6. scoff
  7. scoff down
  8. scoff up
  9. scoff-law
  10. scoff-laws
  11. scoffable

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: scoff (page history and authors); scoff (Tamil Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scoff (Urdu Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scoff (Bengali Wiktionary) (page history and authors); scoff (Olam, E.K. Kurup corpus) (dataset and license); scoff (Kannada 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.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: en-us-scoff.ogg, en-au-scoff.ogg.

Cite this entry: “scoff.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/scoff. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.