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Utter vs Scoff - What's the difference?

utter | scoff |

As verbs the difference between utter and scoff

is that utter is to say while scoff is to jeer; laugh at with contempt and derision.

As an adjective utter

is outer; furthest out, most remote.

As an adverb utter

is further out; further away, outside.

As a noun scoff is

derision; ridicule; a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.

utter

English

Etymology 1

From (etyl) ; compare (outer).

Adjective

(-)
  • * Chapman
    • By him a shirt and utter mantle laid.
  • * Spenser
    • As doth an hidden moth / The inner garment fret, not th' utter touch.
  • * Milton
    • Through utter and through middle darkness borne.
  • (obsolete) Outward.
  • * 1526 , (William Tyndale), trans. Bible , Matthew XXIII:
    • Wo be to you scrybes and pharises ypocrites, for ye make clene the utter side off the cuppe, and off the platter: but within they are full of brybery and excesse.
  • * 1596 , (Edmund Spenser), The Faerie Queene , IV.10:
    • So forth without impediment I past, / Till to the Bridges utter gate I came .
  • Absolute, unconditional, total, complete.
    • utter''' ruin; '''utter darkness
  • * Atterbury
    • They are utter strangers to all those anxious thoughts which disquiet mankind.
  • :* {{quote-book
    • , year=1920 , year_published=2008 , edition=HTML , editor= , author=Edgar Rice Burroughs , title=Thuvia, Maiden of Mars , chapter= citation , genre= , publisher=The Gutenberg Project , isbn= , page= , passage=His eyes could not penetrate the darkness even to the distinguishing of his hand before his face, while the banths, he knew, could see quite well, though absence of light were utter . }}
    Synonyms
    * see also
    Derived terms
    * utterly * utterness * uttermost

    Etymology 2

    Partly from (out) (adverb/verb), partly from (etyl) uteren.

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To say
    • Don't you utter another word!
  • To use the voice
    • Sally uttered a sigh of relief.
    The dog uttered a growling bark.
  • To make speech sounds which may or may not have an actual language involved
    • Sally is uttering some fairly strange things in her illness.
  • *
  • To make (a noise)
    • Sally's car uttered a hideous shriek when she applied the brakes.
  • (legal) To put counterfeit money, etc. , into circulation
    • Derived terms
    * utterance * utterer * utterless * utterable

    Etymology 3

    (etyl) .

    Adverb

    (en adverb)
  • (label) Further out; further away, outside.
  • *, Bk.VII, Ch.v:
  • *:So whan he com nyghe to hir, she bade hym ryde uttir —‘for thou smellyst all of the kychyn.’
    • ----

    scoff

    English

    Etymology 1

    From (etyl) scof/skof, of Scandinavian origin. Compare (etyl) skaup, Danish skuffelse(noun)/skuffe(verb) and Old High German scoph.

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • Derision; ridicule; a derisive or mocking expression of scorn, contempt, or reproach.
  • * Shakespeare
    • With scoffs , and scorns, and contumelious taunts.
  • * 1852 , The Dublin University Magazine (page 66)
    • There were sneers, and scoffs , and inuendoes of some; prophecies of failure in a hundred ways
  • An object of scorn, mockery, or derision.
  • * Cowper
    • The scoff of withered age and beardless youth.
    Synonyms
    * derision, ridicule * See also

    Verb

  • To jeer; laugh at with contempt and derision.
  • * Goldsmith
    • Truth from his lips prevailed with double sway, / And fools who came to scoff , remained to pray.
    Synonyms
    * contemn, deride, sneer

    Etymology 2

    From (etyl).

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • (South Africa) Food.

    • Verb

  • (British) To eat food quickly.
  • (South Africa) To eat.
    • Synonyms
    * (eat quickly) (l), (l) (US)

    See also

    * scuff