scoff
pronunciation
How to pronounce scoff in British English:
UK [skɒf]
How to pronounce scoff in American English:
US [skɔf]
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- Noun:
- showing your contempt by derision
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- Verb:
- laugh at with contempt and derision
- treat with contemptuous disregard
Word Origin
- scoff (v.)
- mid-14c., "jest, make light of something;" mid-15c., "make fun of, mock," from the noun meaning "contemptuous ridicule" (c. 1300), from a Scandinavian source such as Old Norse skaup, skop "mockery, ridicule," Middle Danish skof "jest, mockery;" perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skub-, *skuf- (cognates: Old English scop "poet," Old High German scoph "fiction, sport, jest, derision"), from PIE *skeubh- "to shove" (see shove (v.)).
Example
- 1. Sceptics scoff that codes like this are often ignored .
- 2. Console and computer gamers can scoff at their peril .
- 3. Hawks scoff that mr obama approaches such rogues with fine words but no stick .
- 4. Does microsoft scoff at intellectual property law too , then ?
- 5. Sceptics will scoff that the indian government is far too incompetent to implement such a scheme .