scoff
part of speech
verb (scoff, scoffs, scoffed, scoffing); noun (scoff — UK slang, food)
meaning for a pupil
1) To scoff at someone or something is to laugh at it or talk about it in a mocking way, as if it were silly. tree →
2) (UK, Australia, informal) To scoff food is to eat it very quickly and greedily. tree →
3) (UK slang) Scoff is food. tree →
sense in the lessons
In the Tanakh and Jewish tradition: To mock or laugh at, here especially at God, kings and the prophets. Interpretation: Tradition sees scoffing at God's messengers as a cause of the people's downfall, as Chronicles says before the exile. In the primary lessons: In stories, people scoff at the inventor's idea, but later it works. In everyday British and Australian talk, «Who scoffed all the biscuits?» means who ate them all. It tells the reader someone is being rude or greedy. Phrases: scoff at, scoff down, scoff the lot.
examples
- They scoff, and in wickedness utter oppression; they speak as if there were none on high. (Writings PSA.73.8, JPS 1917) tree →
- And they scoff at kings, and princes are a derision unto them; they deride every stronghold, for they heap up earth, and take it. (Prophets HAB.1.10, JPS 1917) tree →
- but they mocked the messengers of God, and despised His words, and scoffed at His prophets, until the wrath of the LORD arose against His people, till there was no remedy. (Writings 2CH.36.16, JPS 1917) tree →
- Everyone scoffed at his idea of a flying bike. tree →
- My brother scoffed all the chips before I got any. (UK, informal) tree →
- Don't scoff your dinner — eat slowly. tree →
- She scoffed when I said I'd seen a ghost. tree →
- The dog scoffed the sausages off the plate. tree →
- People scoffed, but the Wright brothers did fly. tree →
- Let's get some scoff before the film. (UK slang) tree →
- Then the Prince stood on the beach, and in the pride of his strength he scoffed and said: tree →
note
Regular verb: scoffed, scoffing. «Scoff at» (mock) is followed by «at»; the eating sense is informal. In maths, «he scoffed 3 of the 12 biscuits» means subtract: 9 are left.
In the corpora
Trees and pragmatics
Every meaning and example of «scoff» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.