▪ I. coff
obs. form of corf, basket.
▪ II. coff, v. Sc. arch.
(kɒf)
Pa. tense and pple. coft; also 9 caft.
[orig. found only in pa. pple. and pa. tense coft, prob. a. MDu. coft, cofte (still dial. beside later kocht), pa. pple. of côpen to buy and sell, deal, trade (according to the general Teutonic phonetic law which excluded pt, kt, cf. OE. sóhte for *sócte.) Hence, at a later date, was formed a present coff: the original present was cope, q.v.]
trans. To buy, purchase.
| c 1425 Wyntoun Cron. ix. x. 54 He þat all Man-kynd coft fra care. 1535 Stewart Cron. Scot. II. 583 To thame that banquet had bene ouir deir coft. 1596 Dalrymple tr. Leslie's Hist. Scot. (1885) 63 A hundir egs..war cofte for a frenche sous. 1774 C. Keith Farmer's Ha' xxviii, A the lasses loup..'Cause lads for them coff broach sae bright. 1790 Burns Tam o' Shanter 176 That sark she coft for her wee Nannie. 1807 Tannahill Poems 124 His master caft him frae some fallows. 1868 G. Macdonald R. Falconer I. 280, ‘I cam to coff twine for the draigon’. |
† b. To acquire, get (otherwise than by buying). Obs. ‘Used improperly’ (Jam.).
| 1559 Mirr. Mag., Dk. Clarence xlix, Richard should beside the crowne have coft. a 1586 Sir R. Maitland in Edin. Mag. & Rev. (1810) Sept. 327 (Jam.) Mr. David Seton..mareit all his eldest brother dochters upon landit men..and coft ladies of heretage to his brother sones. |