verb (used without object)
- 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)
- to mock at; deride.
noun
- an expression of mockery, derision, doubt, or derisive scorn; jeer.
- an object of mockery or derision.
verb
- (intr often foll by at) to speak contemptuously (about); express derision (for); mock
- (tr) obsolete to regard with derision
noun
- an expression of derision
- an object of derision
verb
- to eat (food) fast and greedily; devour
noun
- food or rations
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.)).