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doff

From Wiktionary, the free dictionary

English

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WOTD – 4 June 2025

Etymology

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PIE word
*h₂epó
Sir Thomas Lipton, founder of the Lipton tea company, doffing his hat (verb sense 1.1.1).
A doffer doffing (verb sense 1.4.1) or removing spindles of yarn from a speeder machine at Pickett Yarn Mill in High Point, North Carolina, U.S.A., in 1937.
A view of the doffing cylinder (bottom) of a breaker card—a machine which disentangles plant fibres so that they can be spun—at Masson Mill, a cotton spinning mill in Matlock Bath, Derbyshire, England, United Kingdom. This doffing cylinder has many pins which doff (verb sense 1.4.2) or remove small pieces of cotton from the main cylinder of the machine. The cotton is then taken off the doffing cylinder by a knife next to that cylinder, and put into the next stage of production.

The verb is derived from Late Middle English doffen (“to take off (clothing); to remove (headwear) as a sign of respect; to remove (grease) by skimming”),[1] a contraction of Middle English do off, don off, from Old English dōn of,[2] from dōn (“to do; to put; to take off, remove”)[3] + of (“from; off”).[4] Dōn is derived from Proto-West Germanic *dōn (“to do; to place, put”), from Proto-Germanic *dōną (“to do; to make; to place, put”), ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *dʰeh₁- (“to do; to place, put”). By surface analysis, do +‎ off. Compare don (by surface analysis, do + on), dout (do + out), dup (do + up).

The noun is derived from the verb.[5]

Pronunciation

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Verb

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doff (third-person singular simple present doffs, present participle doffing, simple past and past participle doffed) (chiefly literary and dated except Northern England)

  1. (transitive)
    1. (chiefly clothing) To remove or take off (something worn on the body such as armour or clothing, or something carried).
      Antonyms: don, put on
      2. To remove or tip (a hat or other headwear) in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect.
        The rustics doffed their hats at the clergy.
    2. (reflexive, archaic except UK, dialectal) To undress (oneself); to divest, to strip.
      • 1646, Richard Crashaw, “Sospetto d’Herode. Libro Primo.”, in Steps to the Temple. Sacred Poems, with Other Delights of the Muses, London: […] T. W. for Humphrey Moseley, […], →OCLC, stanza 65, page 72:
        VVhy art thou troubled Herod? vvhat vaine feare / Thy blood-revolving Breſt to rage doth move? / Heavens King, vvho doffs himſelfe vveake fleſh to vveare, / Comes not to rule in vvrath, but ſerve in love.
        Referring to Jesus figuratively undressing and putting on human form.
    3. (figurative) To cast aside or get rid of (something), to throw off.
      Doff that stupid idea: it will never work.
    4. (textiles)
      2. To remove (a bobbin or spindle which is full of spun yarn) from a spinning frame for replacement with an empty one.
      4. To remove (small pieces of cotton or other plant fibre, etc.) from a carding cylinder.
    5. (obsolete) To put off or turn away (someone) with an excuse, etc.
  2. (intransitive, rare)
    1. (archaic) To remove or tip a hat or other headwear in greeting or salutation, or as a mark of respect.
      • 1832, Alfred Tennyson, “The Goose”, in Poems. […], volume I, London: Edward Moxon, […], published 1842, →OCLC, stanza V, page 231:
        And [the goose] feeding high, and living soft, / Grew plump and able-bodied; / Until the grave churchwarden doff'd, / The parson smirk'd and nodded.
    2. (obsolete) Followed by with: to remove or take off something worn on the body, or something carried.
      • 1763 June 20 (first performance), Samuel Foote, The Mayor of Garret. A Comedy, […], London: […] P[aul] Vaillant, […], published 1764, →OCLC, Act II, scene [ii], page 45:
        VVhy, look'ye, Major Sturgeon, I don't much care for your poppers and ſharpes, becauſe vvhy, they are out of my vvay; but if you vvill doff vvith your boots, and box a couple of bouts.

Conjugation

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Conjugation of doff
infinitive (to) doff
present tense past tense
1st-person singular doff doffed
2nd-person singular doff, doffest† doffed, doffedst†
3rd-person singular doffs, doffeth† doffed
plural doff
subjunctive doff doffed
imperative doff —
participles doffing doffed

† Archaic or obsolete.

Derived terms

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Translations

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to remove or take off (something worn on the body such as armour or clothing, or something carried)

Noun

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doff (plural doffs)

  1. (obsolete, rare) Followed by off: an act of putting off or turning away someone with an excuse, etc.
    • 1606, A Pleasant Comedie, Called Wily Beguilde. […], London: […] H[umphrey] L[ownes] for Clement Knight;  […], →OCLC, [scene xi], page 38, lines [1221–1222]:
      Faith, Lelia has een giuen him the doff off here, and has made hir father almoſt ſtarke mad.

References

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  1. ^ “doffen, v.”, in MED Online, Ann Arbor, Mich.: University of Michigan, 2007.
  2. ^ “doff, v.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, December 2024; “doff, v.”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
  3. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882) “dōn”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 208, column 2.
  4. ^ Joseph Bosworth (1882) “of, prep.”, in T[homas] Northcote Toller, editor, An Anglo-Saxon Dictionary […], Oxford, Oxfordshire: Clarendon Press, →OCLC, page 728, column 2.
  5. ^ “† doff, n.”, in OED Online Paid subscription required⁠, Oxford: Oxford University Press, July 2023.

Further reading

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Yola

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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From Middle English doffen.

Pronunciation

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Verb

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doff (simple past doft or daffed, past participle ee-daff)

  1. to strip

References

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  • Jacob Poole (d. 1827) (before 1828) William Barnes, editor, A Glossary, With some Pieces of Verse, of the old Dialect of the English Colony in the Baronies of Forth and Bargy, County of Wexford, Ireland, London: J. Russell Smith, published 1867, page 35
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