# cuff
## English
### Pronunciation

* (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA: /kʌf/
** Audio (Southern England):(file)
* (General Australian, New Zealand) IPA: /kɐf/
* (Northern England) IPA: /kʊf/
* Rhymes: -ʌf

### 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)
* (obsolete) Glove; mitten
* The end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist.
* The end of a pants leg when folded up.
* A surgical procedure in which parts of the body that were not previously connected are stitched together.

##### Derived terms

* cuffband
* cuffless
* cufflike
* cufflink
* double cuff
* French cuff
* handcuffs
* intracuff
* legcuff
* leg cuff
* mousquetaire cuff
* off the cuff
* on the cuff
* pantcuff
* pressure cuff
* rotator cuff
* shoot one's cuffs
* tailcuff
* trumpet cuff

##### Translations
#### Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)
* (transitive) To furnish with cuffs.

##### Derived terms

* cuffable
* cuff up
* uncuff

##### Related terms

* cufflinks
* turnup
* off-the-cuff

### Etymology 2

Clipping of handcuff.

#### Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)
* (informal, plural only) A handcuff.

#### Verb

cuff (third-person singular simple present cuffs, present participle cuffing, simple past and past participle cuffed)
* (transitive) To handcuff.
* (transitive, slang) To enter into a committed romantic relationship with (someone).
    cuffing season
** 2023 April 3, @SoraWasntHere, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 23 August 2024:This fr how it be, never cuffing another Latina woman from New York ever again💀
** 2023 December 14, u/No-Spot2923, “What exactly makes a woman only good enough for sex and flings but not actual commitment?”, in Reddit‎, r/dating_advice, archived from the original on 23 August 2024:If your promiscuous, men who know females just date around could take advantage of that, plus a lot wouldn't want to cuff a female they know isn't doing pure things.
** 2024 March 11, u/MobyDukakis, “Being happy single is not celebrated half as much as being a happy couple.”, in Reddit‎, r/Showerthoughts, archived from the original on 23 August 2024:After my last relationship I was so amped to be happy and single, but it's funny how when you are that it's as if potential SOs gravitate even more. It wasn't too long of that before I naturally got cuffed and I'm happy in a relationship but got damn I do wish I had more time happy and single
** 2024 May 23, @CzarCule, Twitter‎, archived from the original on 23 August 2024:Whenever one of my boys cuffs a girl from the club, all I can do is chuckle and shake my head. We all know how it ends.

##### Translations
### 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)
* (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,, “(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.
* (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: […] Jacob Tonson […], →OCLC:While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport.
* To buffet.
** 1855, Alfred Tennyson, “Maud”, in Maud, and Other Poems, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 24:cuffed by the gale

##### Derived terms

* cuffable
* cuffer
* cuff out

##### Translations
#### Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)
* 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 (indicated as 1663), [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, Cambridgeshire: University Press, 1905, →OCLC:many a bitter kick and cuff

##### Derived terms

* Chinese thumb cuff
* countercuff
* cuff on the ear
* fisticuff

### Etymology 4
#### Noun

cuff (plural cuffs)
* (Scotland) The scruff of the neck.

### References

* “cuff”, in Dictionary.com Unabridged, Dictionary.com, LLC, 1995–present.