sofa

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   An upholstered seat with a raised back and one or two raised ends, long enough to comfortably accommodate two or more people.

   He bought a big sofa two days before his relatives arrived.

2. 2
   verb

   To furnish with one or more sofas.

   The appearance of a student's apartment, though by no means splendid, is decidedly comfortable ; it is well cushioned and sofaed, with a proper proportion of arm chairs, and a general air of respectability — much better on the whole than our student's rooms ever are.

3. 3
   verb

   To seat or lay down on a sofa.

   Cliques of three or more are formed, each member of which goes in search of victims, and the first female found complaining of pain in the lower part of her back, is immediately run down, corralled, cornered, so to speak, and sans ceremonie she is at once tabled, sofaed or beded, or in the absence of these relics of refinement she is floored or she may have to submit standing (especially if the doctor is in a hury and meets her at the gate or corner drug store) with an unerring plunge, of a not overly clean index finger, the darksome cavern is penetrated and perhaps, not, a cervix is touched and reveals, of course, a lacerated cervix, just as had been predicted.

4. 4
   noun

   A slave soldier who served in the army of the Mali Empire.

   1884 Sofas conquer northern Sierra Leone. The sofas were soldiers of Mandinka empire builder, Samori Turay. Falaba, capital of Solima Yalunka kingdom, destroyed in the process.

5. 5
   noun

   an upholstered seat for more than one person

6. 6
   noun

   A raised area of a building's floor, usually covered with carpeting, used for sitting.

7. 7
   name

   Acronym of Standards of Fundamental Astronomy.

8. 8
   name

   Acronym of Simulation Open Framework Architecture.

Etymology

Borrowed from French sofa, ultimately from Arabic صُفَّة (ṣuffa, “a long seat made of stone or brick, covered with rich carpets and cushions and used for sitting”). Cognate with Aramaic צפא/Classical Syriac ܨܦܬܐ (ṣipā’, ṣeppəṯā, “mat, matting”). The word may have entered European languages via Muslim Iberia or through Turkish.