cuff

Meanings

Noun

• glove; mitten
• the end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist
• the end of a pants leg, folded up
• handcuffs
• A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.
• The scruff of the neck.

Verb

• To furnish with cuffs.
• To handcuff.
• To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.
• To fight; to scuffle; to box.
• To buffet.

Origin

• From Middle English cuffe, coffe, of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English cuffie, from Medieval Latin cofia, cofea, cuffa, cuphia, from Frankish *kuf(f)ja, from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, from Proto-Germanic *kupjō. Cognate with Middle High German kupfe.
• 1520, “to hit”, apparently of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian kuffa or Swedish kuffa, from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf-, 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, German kuffen. More at scuff, shove, scuffle.