Klryz
Pronunciation guide: IPA symbols, stress and word endings

Vowels

iːseeɪsite / ɛbedæcat
ɑːfatherɒhot (UK)ɔːlawʊput
uːtooʌcupɜːbirdəabout
eɪdayaɪmyɔɪboyaʊnow
əʊ / oʊgo (UK / US)ɪəneareəhairʊətour

Consonants that look unusual

θthinðthisʃsheʒmeasure
tʃchurchdʒjudgeŋsingjyes

p b t d k g f v s z h m n l r w sound as in ordinary English spelling.

Marks

  • ˈ main stress, before the stressed syllable: /ˈwɔːtə/ water · ˌ lighter (secondary) stress: /ˌʌndəˈstænd/ understand
  • ː a long vowel · (r) an r said only in accents that pronounce it (most American, Scottish, Irish)

Common word endings

  • -s / -es (plurals; he/she form of verbs): /s/ after voiceless sounds (cats), /z/ after voiced (dogs), /ɪz/ after s, z, sh, ch, j sounds (buses, watches). Spelling: -es after s, x, z, ch, sh; consonant + y → -ies (city → cities).
  • -ed (past): /t/ after voiceless sounds (walked), /d/ after voiced (played), /ɪd/ after t or d (wanted). Spelling: love → loved, stop → stopped, carry → carried.
  • -ing: make → making, run → running, see → seeing.
  • Irregular: go, went, gone · be, was, been · see, saw, seen · man → men · child → children · mouse → mice.
  • Older (King James) forms: -eth = -s (he loveth = he loves) · -est with “thou” (thou lovest) · spake = spoke.

English Dictionary · 107,383 entries · Sources & licences

cuff

/kʌf/ noun, verb, proper noun

Forms cuffs cuffing cuffed Cuffe

  1. noun (obsolete) Glove; mitten
  2. noun The end of a shirt sleeve that covers the wrist.
  3. noun The end of a pants leg when folded up.
  4. noun A surgical procedure in which parts of the body that were not previously connected are stitched together.
  5. verb (transitive) To furnish with cuffs.
  6. noun (informal, plural only) A handcuff.
  7. verb (transitive) To handcuff.
  8. verb (transitive, slang) To enter into a committed romantic relationship with (someone). “cuffing season”
  9. verb (transitive) To hit, as a reproach, particularly with the open palm to the head; to slap.
  10. verb (intransitive) To fight; to scuffle; to box.
  11. verb To buffet.
  12. noun A blow, especially with the open hand; a box; a slap.
  13. noun (Scotland) The scruff of the neck.
  14. proper noun A surname.

Synonyms

turnup handcuff handlock manacle whomp

Etymology

From Middle English cuffe, coffe (“glove, mitten”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old English cuffie (“hood, cap”), from Medieval Latin cofia, cofea, cuffa, cuphia (“helmet, headdress, hood, cap”), from Frankish *kuf(f)ja (“headdress”), from Proto-West Germanic *kuffju, from Proto-Germanic *kupjō (“cap”). Cognate with Middle High German kupfe (“cap”).

Clipping of handcuff.

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.

* As an English surname, from Middle English cuffe (“glove”); see cuff.
* As an Irish surname, from mac duibh (“son of the dark one”), see Duff.
* As a Cornish surname, from cuf (“kind, dear”), from Proto-Celtic *koymo- (“nice, dear”), from Proto-Indo-European *ḱóymos (“village, home”); see home.

Webster’s 1913

  1. verb To strike; esp., to smite with the palm or flat of the hand; to slap.
  2. verb To buffet. "Cuffed by the gale." Tennyson.
  3. verb To fight; to scuffle; to box. While the peers cuff to make the rabble sport. Dryden.
  4. noun A blow; esp.,, a blow with the open hand; a box; a slap.

Etymology [Cf. Sw. kuffa to knock, push,kufva to check, subdue, and E. cow, v. t.]

Etymology [Perh. from F. coiffe headdress, hood, or coif; as if the cuff were a cap for the hand. Cf. Coif.]

Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “cuff”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details