doff

doff
\ \ [14] Doff, don [14], and the now obsolete dout [16] and dup [16], contractions respectively of ‘do off, on, out, and up’, preserve the ancient meaning of do, ‘put, place’. They were standard Middle English forms, but gradually fell out of the mainstream language into dialect (from which dout and dup never emerged). Sir Walter Scott, however, included doff and don, in their specific sense ‘remove or put on clothing’, in his long list of medieval lexical revivals (‘My experience has been in donning steel gauntlets on mailed knights’, Fair Maid of Perth 1828), and they have survived as archaisms ever since.

Word origins - 2ed. . 2005.

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  • Doff — Doff, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Doffed}; p. pr. & vb. n. {Doffing}.] [Do + off. See {Do}, v. t., 7.] 1. To put off, as dress; to divest one s self of; hence, figuratively, to put or thrust away; to rid one s self of. [1913 Webster] And made us doff… …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • Doff — ist der Nachname von: Neel Doff (1858–1942), niederländische Autorin Nicki Doff (* 1963), deutscher Kinderstar Diese Seite ist eine Begriffsklärung zur Unterscheidung mehrerer mit demselben Wort bezeichneter Begriffe …   Deutsch Wikipedia

  • Doff — Doff, v. i. To put off dress; to take off the hat. [1913 Webster] …   The Collaborative International Dictionary of English

  • doff — doff·er; doff; …   English syllables

  • doff — index denude Burton s Legal Thesaurus. William C. Burton. 2006 …   Law dictionary

  • doff — [dɔf US da:f, do:f] v [T] old fashioned [Date: 1300 1400; Origin: do off to take off (8 17 centuries)] to remove the hat you are wearing as a sign of respect …   Dictionary of contemporary English

  • doff — [ daf ] verb transitive MAINLY LITERARY to take off a piece of clothing, especially a hat …   Usage of the words and phrases in modern English

  • doff — mid 14c., contraction of do off, preserving the original sense of DO (Cf. do) as put. At the time of Johnson s Dictionary [1755] the word was obsolete, and rarely used except by rustics, but it was saved from extinction (along with don) by Sir… …   Etymology dictionary

  • doff — [v] remove cast off, discard, disrobe, peel, put aside, shed, shuck, slip off, strip, take off, undress; concepts 211,453 …   New thesaurus

  • doff — ► VERB ▪ remove (an item of clothing, especially a hat). ORIGIN contraction of do off …   English terms dictionary

  • doff — [däf, dôf] vt. [ME doffen < don of: see DO1 & OFF1] 1. to take off (clothes, etc.) 2. to remove or lift (one s hat), as in greeting 3. to put aside or discard …   English World dictionary

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