cuff

See also: Cuff

English

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /kʌf/
• Rhymes: -ʌf

  • Audio (Southern England)

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Etymology 1

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

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (obsolete) Glove; mitten
2. The end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist.
3. The end of a pants leg when folded up.

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To furnish with cuffs.

Derived terms

• double cuff
• French cuff
• mousquetaire cuff
• off the cuff
• on the cuff
• pressure cuff
• rotator cuff
• shoot one's cuffs
• trumpet cuff

 

Related terms

• cufflinks
• turnup
• off-the-cuff

Translations

the end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist

• Aromanian: mãnichetã f
• Belarusian: абшэ́ўка f (abšéŭka), абшла́г m (abšláh), манжэ́та f (manžéta)
• Bulgarian: манше́т (bg) m (manšét), ръкавела (bg) f (rǎkavela)
• Catalan: puny (ca) m, bocamàniga f
• Chinese:

  Mandarin: 袖口 (zh) (xiùkǒu)

• Czech: manžeta (cs) f
• Danish: manchet c
• Dutch: manchet (nl) f, voormouw
• Emilian: pulsén m, peramàn m, pulsèin m
• Esperanto: manumo (eo)
• Finnish: hihansuu (fi), kalvosin (fi)
• French: manchette (fr) f
• Galician: puño (gl) m
• German: Manschette (de) f, Bündchen (de) n, Ärmelbündchen n, Hemdmanschette f, Luftmanschette f
• Greek: μανσέτα (el) n (manséta)
• Hebrew: חֵפֶת (he) m (hepet)
• Hungarian: mandzsetta (hu)
• Indonesian: manset (id)
• Irish: cufa m
• Italian: polsino m
• Japanese: 袖口 (ja) (そでぐち, sodeguchi), カフ (ja) (kafu)
• Korean: 수구 (ko) (sugu), 커프스 (keopeuseu)
• Macedonian: манже́тна f (manžétna)
• Norwegian:

  Bokmål: mansjett m

  Nynorsk: mansjett m

• Polish: mankiet (pl) m
• Portuguese: punho (pt) m
• Romanian: manșetă (ro) f
• Russian: манже́та (ru) f (manžéta), обшла́г (ru) m (obšlág)
• Scottish Gaelic: bann-dùirn m
• Slovak: manžeta f
• Spanish: puño (es) m, ruedo (es) m
• Swedish: manschett (sv) c
• Tagalog: punyos
• Turkish: manşet (tr)
• Ukrainian: манже́та (uk) f (manžéta), обшла́г m (obšláh)

the end of a pants leg, folded up

• Bulgarian: манше́т (bg) m (manšét)
• Finnish: lahkeenkäänne, housunkäänne, upslaaki (fi)
• French: revers (fr) m
• German: Aufschlag (de) m, Umschlag (de) m, Ärmelaufschlag m, Hosenaufschlag m
• Greek: ρεβέρ (el) n (revér)
• Italian: orlo (it) m
• Macedonian: манже́тна f (manžétna)
• Polish: mankiet (pl) m
• Portuguese: barra (pt) f
• Romanian: manșetă (ro) f, margine (ro) f
• Russian: отворо́т (ru) m (otvorót) (на брю́ках)
• Spanish: bajo (es) m, vuelta (es) f, bastilla f

Etymology 2

Clipping of handcuff.

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (informal, plural only) A handcuff.

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To handcuff.

Translations

to handcuff — see handcuff

Etymology 3

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.

Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)

1. (transitive) To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.
   • c. 1590–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Taming of the Shrew”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene i]:

     I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again.

   • 1687, [John Dryden], “(please specify the page number)”, in The Hind and the Panther. A Poem, in Three Parts, 2nd edition, London: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     [They] with their quills did all the hurt they could, / And cuff'd the tender chickens from their food.

2. (intransitive) To fight; to scuffle; to box.
   • 1693, Decimus Junius Juvenalis, John Dryden, transl., “[The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis.] The Eighth Satyr”, in The Satires of Decimus Junius Juvenalis. Translated into English Verse. […] Together with the Satires of Aulus Persius Flaccus. […], London: Printed for Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:

     While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport.

3. To buffet.
   • 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24:

     cuffed by the gale

Derived terms

• cuff out

 

Translations

To hit, as a reproach

• Bulgarian: пляскам (bg) (pljaskam)
• Finnish: läimäyttää (fi)
• French: gifler (fr), souffleter (fr)
• German: ohrfeigen (de), einen Klaps geben, abfotzen
• Macedonian: плеснува (plesnuva), удира шлаканица (udira šlakanica)
• Spanish: abofetear (es)
• Welsh: cernodio

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.
   • 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book I, Canto II”, in The Faerie Queene. […], London: […] [John Wolfe] for William Ponsonbie, →OCLC, stanza 17:

     The Sarazin sore daunted with the buffe / Snatcheth his sword, and fiercely to him flies; / Who well it wards, and quyteth cuff with cuff:

   • 1662, [Samuel Butler], “[The First Part of Hudibras]”, in Hudibras. The First and Second Parts. […], London: […] John Martyn and Henry Herringman, […], published 1678; republished in A[lfred] R[ayney] Waller, editor, Hudibras: Written in the Time of the Late Wars, Cambridge: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:

     many a bitter kick and cuff

Derived terms

• Chinese thumb cuff
• cuff on the ear

 

Etymology 4

Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)

1. (Scotland) The scruff of the neck.