cuff

Meanings

1. 1
   verb

   to confine or restrain with or as if with manacles or handcuffs

   The police handcuffed the suspect at the scene of the crime

2. 2
   verb

   to hit with the hand

   I was cuffed on the temple.

3. 3
   verb

   To enter into a committed romantic relationship with (someone).

   cuffing season

4. 4
   verb

   To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.

   I swear I'll cuff you, if you strike again.

5. 5
   verb

   To fight; to scuffle; to box.

   While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport.

6. 6
   verb

   To buffet.

   cuffed by the gale

7. 7
   noun

   A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.

   The Sarazin sore daunted with the buffe / Snatcheth his sword, and fiercely to him flies; / Who well it wards, and quyteth cuff with cuff:

8. 8
   noun

   the lap consisting of a turned-back hem encircling the end of the sleeve or leg

Etymology

1520, “to hit”, apparently of North Germanic origin, from Norwegian kuffa (“to push, shove”) or Swedish kuffa (“to knock, thrust, strike”), from the Proto-Germanic base *skuf- (skuƀ), from Proto-Indo-European *skewbʰ-, see also Lithuanian skùbti (“to hurry”), Polish skubać (“to pluck”), Albanian humb (“to lose”). Germanic cognates include Low German kuffen (“to box the ears”), German kuffen (“to thrash”). More at scuff, shove, scuffle.