SCOFF

Pronunciation (US):

(GB):

IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does scoff mean? 

• SCOFF (noun)
  The noun SCOFF has 1 sense:

1. showing your contempt by derision

  Familiarity information: SCOFF used as a noun is very rare.

• SCOFF (verb)
  The verb SCOFF has 2 senses:

1. laugh at with contempt and derision

2. treat with contemptuous disregard

  Familiarity information: SCOFF used as a verb is rare.

 Dictionary entry details 

• SCOFF (noun)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Showing your contempt by derision

Classified under:

Nouns denoting communicative processes and contents

Synonyms:

jeer; jeering; mockery; scoff; scoffing

Hypernyms ("scoff" is a kind of...):

derision (contemptuous laughter)

Derivation:

scoff (treat with contemptuous disregard)

scoff (laugh at with contempt and derision)

• SCOFF (verb)

Present simple: I / you / we / they scoff    ... he / she / it scoffs   
Past simple: scoffed   
Past participle: scoffed   
-ing form: scoffing   

Sense 1

Meaning:

Laugh at with contempt and derision

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

barrack; flout; gibe; jeer; scoff

Context example:

The crowd jeered at the speaker

Hypernyms (to "scoff" is one way to...):

bait; cod; rag; rally; razz; ride; tantalise; tantalize; taunt; tease; twit (harass with persistent criticism or carping)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s PP

Derivation:

scoff (showing your contempt by derision)

scoffer (someone who jeers or mocks or treats something with contempt or calls out in derision)

scoffing (showing your contempt by derision)

Sense 2

Meaning:

Treat with contemptuous disregard

Classified under:

Verbs of telling, asking, ordering, singing

Synonyms:

flout; scoff

Context example:

flout the rules

Hypernyms (to "scoff" is one way to...):

brush aside; brush off; discount; dismiss; disregard; ignore; push aside (bar from attention or consideration)

Sentence frame:

Somebody ----s something

Derivation:

scoff (showing your contempt by derision)

scoffer (someone who jeers or mocks or treats something with contempt or calls out in derision)

scoffing (showing your contempt by derision)

 Context examples 

Yet of the moderns there are many who scoff at all omens.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Scoffing devil! Again do I vow vengeance; again do I devote thee, miserable fiend, to torture and death.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

He had always been irreligious, scoffing good-naturedly at the sky-pilots and their immortality of the soul.

(Martin Eden, by Jack London)

My courage and perseverance were invigorated by these scoffing words; I resolved not to fail in my purpose, and calling on Heaven to support me, I continued with unabated fervour to traverse immense deserts, until the ocean appeared at a distance and formed the utmost boundary of the horizon.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)