Doff vs Duff - What's the difference?
doff | duff |
(clothing) to remove or take off, especially of clothing
* Shakespeare
* Emerson
* {{quote-book
, year=1960
, author=
, title=(Jeeves in the Offing)
, section=chapter VII
, passage=She had doffed the shirt and Bermuda-shorts which she had been wearing and was now dressed for her journey home.}}
to remove or tip a hat, as in greeting, salutation or as a mark of respect
to get rid of, to throw off
*1778 , Charles Dibdin, The Perfect Sailor :
*:Thus Death, who kings and tars despatches,
*:For, though his body's under hatches
(reflexive) To strip; to divest; to undress.
* Crashaw
(dialectal) Dough.
A stiff flour pudding, often with dried fruit, boiled in a cloth bag, or steamed
* 1901 , , short story The Ghosts of Many Christmases'', published in ''Children of the Bush [http://www.gutenberg.org/etext/7065]:
(Scotland, US) Decaying vegetable matter on the forest floor.
* 1999 , (George RR Martin), A Clash of Kings , Bantam 2011, p. 366:
Coal dust.
(slang) The bits left in the bottom of the bag after the booty has been consumed, like crumbs.
Something spurious or fake; a counterfeit, a worthless thing.
An error.
(UK) Worthless; not working properly, defective.
* 1996 , , State of Desire ,
* 2003 , ,
* 2009 , , Paperboy ,
(slang, obsolete) To disguise something to make it look new.
(Australia) To alter the branding of stolen cattle; to steal cattle.
To beat up.
(US, golf) To hit the ground behind the ball.
As a verb doff
is (clothing) to remove or take off, especially of clothing.As a proper noun duff is
.doff
English
Verb
(en verb)- And made us doff our easy robes of peace.
- At night, or in the rain, / He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn.
- The rustics doffed their hats at the clergy.
- Doff that stupid idea: it would never work.
- In vain Tom's life has doffed ,
- His soul has gone aloft.
- Heaven's King, who doffs himself our flesh to wear.
Antonyms
* (remove or take off clothing)Derived terms
*Synonyms
* (remove clothing) (l)duff
English
Etymology 1
Representing a northern pronunciation of (dough).Noun
(en noun)- The storekeeper had sent them an unbroken case of canned plum pudding, and probably by this time he was wondering what had become of that blanky case of duff .
Etymology 2
Origin uncertain; probably imitative.Noun
(en noun)- Out under the trees, some rangers had found enough duff and dry wood to start a fire beneath a slanting ridge of slate.
Adjective
(er)- Why do I always get a shopping trolley with duff wheels?
page 155,
- From its surface, he insisted, plain food became ambrosia, water nectar, and the duffest dope would blow your mind.
page 315,
- One will win the coveted Hollywood Science Award, which, in Robert?s words “is given in recognition of the duffest science in movie-dom” so it will be worth tuning in to find out what movie stunt wins.
page 225,
- All the other parts were played by a gallery of Dickensian character actors, including Thorley Walters, Francis Matthews and, yes, Michael Ripper, who lent gravitas to the duffest dialogue lines.
Synonyms
* (defective) bum (US)Etymology 3
Origin uncertain; perhaps the same as Etymology 1, above.Etymology 4
Originally thieves' slang; probably a back-formation from (duffer).Verb
(en verb)- I heard Nick got duffed up behind the shopping centre at the weekend.