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ENGLISH · A WORD WITH POSSIBILITIES

cuff.

Glove; mitten

4 characters1 syllables approx.English language

Meaning & usage

noun/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. Glove; mitten

    obsolete
  2. The end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist.

  3. The end of a pants leg when folded up.

  4. A surgical procedure in which parts of the body that were not previously connected are stitched together.

Where this word comes from

From Middle English cuffe, coffe (“glove, mitten”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English cuffie (“hood, cap”), from Medieval Latin cofia, cofea, cuffa, cuphia (“helmet, headdress, hood, cap”), from Frankish *kuf(f)ja (“headdress”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, from Proto-Germanic *kupjō (“cap”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe (“cap”).

verb/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. To furnish with cuffs.

    transitive
Where this word comes from

From Middle English cuffe, coffe (“glove, mitten”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English cuffie (“hood, cap”), from Medieval Latin cofia, cofea, cuffa, cuphia (“helmet, headdress, hood, cap”), from Frankish *kuf(f)ja (“headdress”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, from Proto-Germanic *kupjō (“cap”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe (“cap”).

noun/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. A handcuff.

    informal · plural · plural-only
Where this word comes from

Clipping of handcuff.

verb/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. To handcuff.

    transitive
  2. To enter into a committed romantic relationship with (someone).

    slang · transitive
    cuffing season
Where this word comes from

Clipping of handcuff.

verb/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.

    transitive
  2. To fight; to scuffle; to box.

    intransitive
  3. To buffet.

Where this word comes from

1520, “to hit”, apparently of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian kuffa (“to push, shove”) or Swedish kuffa (“to knock, thrust, strike”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”). Germanic cognates include Low German kuffen (“to box the ears”), German kuffen (“to thrash”). More at scuff, shove, scuffle.

noun/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.

Where this word comes from

1520, “to hit”, apparently of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian kuffa (“to push, shove”) or Swedish kuffa (“to knock, thrust, strike”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”). Germanic cognates include Low German kuffen (“to box the ears”), German kuffen (“to thrash”). More at scuff, shove, scuffle.

noun/kʌf/General-American, Received-Pronunciation/kɐf/Australia, New-Zealand/kʊf/Northern-England
  1. The scruff of the neck.

    Scotland
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Definitions, grammatical labels, IPA, etymology and examples: Wiktionary contributors, extracted by Kaikki / Wiktextract. Adapted under CC BY-SA 4.0. Selected fields and authored examples are shown; third-party quotations and audio are omitted. See contributor history.

Last enriched 2026-09-10. Definitions are in English. Romanizations are shown when supplied by the source; syllable estimates are omitted for unsupported scripts.