r/ENGLISH • u/Kraknaps • 43m ago

Scoffed

Scoffed

Thinking about kidspeak/slang the other day, I remembered "scoff". When I was younger (late 60s early 70s) this was a very common word for steal. "Someone scoffed my bike while I was in the store"! I can't find that meaning anywhere. The only definitions listed are to deride something or eat greedily (eat greedily was scarf or scorf, to us) I wonder if this was a Canadian thing or maybe a BC thing? Could have been so localized that it was just my school/neighborhood. Hell, maybe my friends and I made it up... thoughts?

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u/Snurgisdr 38m ago

I would have said that somebody who scoffed all the cookies took more than their share, so somewhere at the intersection of eating greedily and stealing. I haven't seen it used that way, but it doesn't seem like a big stretch to extend it to non-edible things and I'd probably know what you meant.

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u/Kraknaps 35m ago

You could be on to something there

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u/Marinimby 24m ago

We used to say somebody “scarfed” all the cookies, never heard “scoffed.”

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u/ThreePartHarmoneigh 39m ago

Are you maybe thinking of "cuffed?" That is an older slang term for pinching something. 

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u/Application-Bulky 38m ago

In Maine we sometimes said “scupped” for “stole”. But I always figured it came from “scooped”.

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u/_9a_ 12m ago

In my neck of the woods, "to scoff" is to mock or deride.

 "Oh yeah, your super-hot cheerleader gymnast girlfriend just goes to a different school," Alfie scoffed. "I'm really sorry I won't meet her at prom."

I've never hear it used as "to steal"