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scoff

1
[skawf, skof]
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verb (used without object)
  1. to speak derisively; mock; jeer (often followed by at): If you can't do any better, don't scoff. Their efforts toward a peaceful settlement are not to be scoffed at.
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verb (used with object)
  1. to mock at; deride.
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noun
  1. an expression of mockery, derision, doubt, or derisive scorn; jeer.
  2. an object of mockery or derision.
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Origin of scoff

1
1300–50; Middle English scof; origin uncertain, but compare Old Norse skopa to scorn
Related formsscoff·er, nounscoff·ing·ly, adverb

Synonyms for scoff

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1. gibe. Scoff, jeer, sneer imply behaving with scornful disapproval toward someone or about something. To scoff is to express insolent doubt or derision, openly and emphatically: to scoff at a new invention. To jeer suggests expressing disapproval and scorn more loudly, coarsely, and unintelligently than in scoffing: The crowd jeered when the batter struck out. To sneer is to show by facial expression or tone of voice ill-natured contempt or disparagement: He sneered unpleasantly in referring to his opponent's misfortunes.

Antonyms for scoff

3. praise.
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Related Words for scoffer

atheist, agnostic, doubter, questioner, pessimist, dissenter, cynic, skeptic, detractor, unbeliever, infidel, heretic, iconoclast, heathen, freethinker, polytheist, scoffer, idolater, pantheist, misanthrope

Examples from the Web for scoffer

Historical Examples of scoffer

  • I am delighted to testify to these things, because I had formerly been a scoffer.

    The Story of the Malakand Field Force

    Sir Winston S. Churchill

  • All creeds may be welded together, but the Puritan and the scoffer are like oil and water.

    Micah Clarke

    Arthur Conan Doyle

  • We know truth when we see it, let skeptic and scoffer say what they choose.

    Essays, First Series

    Ralph Waldo Emerson

  • Said I was a scoffer and an infidel and didn't know anything about Scripture! '

    Mary-'Gusta

    Joseph C. Lincoln

  • It would never do for the scoffer to become a convert openly and at once.

    The Portygee

    Joseph Crosby Lincoln

British Dictionary definitions for scoffer

scoff

1
verb
  1. (intr often foll by at) to speak contemptuously (about); express derision (for); mock
  2. (tr) obsolete to regard with derision
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noun
  1. an expression of derision
  2. an object of derision
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Derived Formsscoffer, nounscoffing, adjectivescoffingly, adverb

Word Origin for scoff

C14: probably from Scandinavian; compare Old Frisian skof mockery, Danish skof, skuf jest

scoff

2
verb
  1. to eat (food) fast and greedily; devour
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noun
  1. food or rations
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Word Origin for scoff

C19: variant of scaff food; related to Afrikaans, Dutch schoft quarter of the day, one of the four daily meals
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for scoffer

n.

late 15c., agent noun from scoff (v.).

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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, cf. Old Norse skaup, skop "mockery, ridicule," Middle Danish skof "jest, mockery;" perhaps from Proto-Germanic *skub-, *skuf- (cf. Old English scop "poet," Old High German scoph "fiction, sport, jest, derision"), from PIE *skeubh- "to shove" (see shove (v.)).

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper