Forms: 4 coffe, 4–7 cuffe, 6 cuyffe, 7 kuff, 7– cuff. [ME. coffe, cuffe, of uncertain origin.
The word has some similarity of form to ML. cuphia, cuffia, in OE. cuffie, cap, head-covering, F. coife, COIF; but no connection of sense appears.]
† 1. A mitten or glove. Obs.
1362. Langl., P. Pl., A. VII. 56. He caste on his cloþes, i-clouted and i-hole, His cokeres and his coffus, for colde of his nayles.
c. 1440. Promp. Parv., 106. Cuffe, glove, or meteyne, mitta (J. ciroteca).
1467. Nottingham Rec., II. 262. Unum par chirotecarum vocatarum cuffes de velwet.
2. An ornamental part at the bottom of a sleeve, consisting of a fold of the sleeve itself turned back, a band of linen, lace, etc., sewed on, or the like; also, the corresponding part of a shirt-sleeve, or a separate band of linen or other material worn round the wrist so as to appear under the sleeve.
1522. Test. Ebor. (Surtees), V. 154. My velvett jacket, to make his childer patlettes and cuyffes.
1594. Nashe, Unfort. Trav., 15. Cleane shirts and cuffes.
a. 1613. Overbury, A Wife (1638), 162. He never weares Cuffes.
1684. Wilding, in Collect. (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), I. 259. For a pair of Kuffs.
1768. Sterne, Sent. Journ., Remise Door. She laid her hand upon the cuff of my coat.
1838. Dickens, O. Twist, ii. Oliver firmly grasping his [Mr. Bumble’s] gold-laced cuff.
1861. Wynter, Soc. Bees, 153. He turned up his cuffs like an expert chemical lecturer.
b. That part of a long glove or gauntlet which covers the wrist or part of the arm.
1860. J. Hewitt, Anc. Armour, II. Descr. Engravings, p. vii. The sollerets and the cuffs of the gauntlets.
3. A fetter for the wrist, a HANDCUFF.
1663. Butler, Hud., I. II. 1093. Promises that yoke The Conqueror, are quickly broke, Like Sampson’s Cuffs.
1861. Thackeray, Round. Papers, On being found out (1876), 132. Mr. Bardolph … puts out his hands to the little steel cuffs, and walks away quite meekly.
4. attrib. and Comb.
1677. Wood, Life (Oxf. Hist. Soc.), II. 389. For cuff strings, 8d.
1684. Lond. Gaz., No. 1981/4. A Cuff Button with a Diamond of about ten grains.
1883. A. Dobson, Old-World Idylls, 17. The shoulder-knot that slept within her cuff-box.
