Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (also scorf, skoff) to eat, to gobble up.

1846		Swell’s Night Guide 48: He scoffed weed; that is, chewed tobacco. [Ibid.] 50: You must grub with the grunters, and scoff cabbage without salt.
1859		C. Abbey diary 1 Aug. in Gosnell Before the Mast (1989) 193: Ned & I ‘scoffed’ it between us.
1884		Henley & Stevenson Admiral Guinea II i: Get me a noggin of rum and suthin’ to scoff.
1887		Bulletin (Sydney) 15 Oct. 12/1: It is earnestly desired that the new man when he invites his fellow citizens to the festive ‘hop,’ won’t request a favoured forty to ‘scorf’ the best vittles in a private room. [Ibid.] 14/2: After the fair young feeder has ‘scorfed’ everything that comes handy she finishes up by sucking the gravy from her finger tips.
1890		Sporting Times 15 Mar. 2/2: He may learn from those present that that particular product of sallees de Meilhan was ‘skoffed’ before Calais.
1894		Civil & Milit. Gaz. (Lahore) 18 Oct. 4/3: A man as don’t lower the porter. / Scorfs ’is pice over doorsteps an wads.
1895		Anaconda Standard (MT) 15 Dec. 10/1: ‘Wanter scoff? Well, Jack [...] I’ll make dat hash joint wish dey had never went inter der business’.
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 70: Scoff, to eat or drink quickly.
1895		Harington & LeBrunn [perf. Marie Lloyd] The Rich Girl and the Poor 🎵 The poor girl she just scorfs a plate o’ whelks, / But she gets there just the same.
1902		J. Masefield ‘Sing a Song o’ Shipwreck’ in Salt-Water Ballads 7: A packet o’ Sailor’s Delight as I scoffed in the seas o’ the Horn.
1909		Observer (N.Z.) 27 Nov. 52/1: Don’t you get scoffin’ all my bally whisky.
1911		Gem 30 Sept. 5: You don’t mean to say that you’ve scoffed all the tommy, you unearthly porpoise!
1919		D. Runyon ‘A Tale of Two Fists’ XXIII in Pittsburgh Press (PA) 5 June 32/2: ‘I’ve always been a good eater, and the Fishers liked their scoffin’ too’.
1920		E. O’Neill Anna Christie Act II: We’d all ought to be with Davy Jones [...] we’d be being scoffed by the fishes this minute!
1922		Joyce Ulysses 161: Scoffing up stewgravy with sopping sippets of bread.
1925		(con. WWI) Fraser & Gibbons Soldier and Sailor Words 260: Skoff, To: To eat.
1932		M. Marshall Travels of Tramp-Royal 234: A couple of duck eggs [...] that I knew he meant to keep till he got a chance to scoff them on the sly.
1943		R. Llewellyn None But the Lonely Heart 119: Bet you scoffed all the bloody lot, didn’t you?
1959		A. Sillitoe ‘Noah’s Ark’ Loneliness of the Long-Distance Runner (1960) 93: I could scoff a hoss between two mattresses.
1963		C. Wood ‘Prisoner and Escort’ in Cockade (1965) I iii: You can’t miss them ... two sons of Africa scoffing Kit-e-Kat sandwiches.
1979		E. Torres After Hours 183: Ham and pork sausages (them Jews were scoffin’ them up).
1982		Beano 26 June 8: We’re scoffing his grapes!
1999		Eve. Standard 4 June 54: We spend the time [...] scoffing tasty grub.
2000		Guardian Rev. 1 Jan. 14: In between all the scoffing and quaffing.
2019		S. Bythell Confessions of a Bookseller 296: Nicky was in with a bag of squashed welshcakes. She spent the first ten minutes of the working day scoffing them.

2. to give food, to feed.

1899

J. Flynt Tramping with Tramps 384: Blokey, squeal at that house over there – it’s a priest; he’ll scoff ye.

3. to grab.

1900		Sporting Times 3 Mar. 3/3: ‘I haven’t scoffed anything from you, have I?’ [...] ‘Young man, you are using that term in its vulgar, idiotic, and slang sense.’.
1908		Gem 17 Oct. 14: The feed’s been scoffed. Then it’s all up with the grub.
1979		J. Morrow Confessions of Proinsias O’Toole 48: ‘Toby,’ she shrieked [...] ‘they’ve scoffed another beagle!’.
2011		Mail & Guardian (Johannesburg) 30 May 🌐 Filling the trough so the pigs can scoff [...] how to rip off the government through state leasing.

4. in fig. use, to defeat or attack.

1905		‘Doss Chiderdoss’ ‘Wedlock by Wire’ Sporting Times 6 May 1/3: Marriage on such lines / Was like ‘Hamlet’ with no ‘moody Dane’ to scoff.
1941		G. Kersh They Die with Their Boots Clean 4: We could see that the lousy old wog was going to make one big, determined rush and scoff us that way.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 222: He would in any case squash me against the wall like a bed-bug [...] belt me, scoff me, and in general make my life unbearable.

5. (US drugs) to take narcotics orally.

1938		D. Maurer ‘Lang. of the Und. Narcotic Addict’ Pt 2 in Lang. Und. (1981) 108/2: To scoff. To take narcotics through the mouth.
1959		J.E. Schmidt Narcotics Lingo and Lore.

6. (US campus) to fellate.

1969

Current Sl. III:3 10: To eat (often with sexual connotations).

7. to drink.

1976

R. Morrieson Pallet on the Floor 29: What say we go down to my burg and scoff some home-brew.

8. (US teen) to steal, to pilfer.

1983

Totally True Diaries of an Eighties Roller Queen 🌐 3 Aug. Today I scoffed this diary. It was the first time I had stolen anything in a long time.