scoffer









scoffer


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.

verb (used with object)

  1. to mock at; deride.

noun

  1. an expression of mockery, derision, doubt, or derisive scorn; jeer.
  2. an object of mockery or derision.

verb

  1. (intr often foll by at) to speak contemptuously (about); express derision (for); mock
  2. (tr) obsolete to regard with derision

noun

  1. an expression of derision
  2. an object of derision

verb

  1. to eat (food) fast and greedily; devour

noun

  1. food or rations

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

49 queries 0.614