scuff

• IPA^(key): /skʌf/
• Rhymes: -ʌf

From Scots scuff (“to touch lightly, graze, hit”), of obscure origin. Perhaps from Old Norse skúfa (“to shove, push aside”), from Proto-Germanic *skeubaną (“to shove”). More at English shove.

scuff (third-person singular simple present scuffs, present participle scuffing, simple past and past participle scuffed)

1. To scrape the feet while walking.
2. To hit lightly, to brush against.
   • 1979, V. S. Naipaul, A Bend in the River:

     The lawns and gardens had been scuffed away.

   • 2011 December 29, Keith Jackson, “SPL: Celtic 1 Rangers 0”, in Daily Record‎:

     Wallace threw himself at it to connect with a flying header. He looked a certain scorer but his effort scuffed the inside of Fraser Forster’s post.

3. To mishit (a shot on a ball) due to poor contact with the ball.
   • 2011 September 2, “Wales 2-1 Montenegro”, in BBC‎:

     The Montenegro captain was finding space at will and followed up with a speculative shot that he scuffed wide, after Wales were slow in closing down the Juventus striker.

• scuff mark

• scuffle

scuff (plural scuffs)

1. (sometimes attributive) A mark left by scuffing or scraping.

   Someone left scuff marks in the sand.

   • 2015, Charles W. Jones, Hydrangeas on the Lanai

     He flung his shoes across the room, their soles leaving black scuffs on the dingy wall.

• scuffed

scuff (plural scuffs)

1. A scurf; a scale.
2. The back part of the neck; the scruff.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Ld. Lytton to this entry?)

• scoff
• scruff

• Cuffs, cuffs