cuff

/kəf/

/kəf/

Other forms: cuffs; cuffed; cuffing

A cuff is the very end of a long sleeve or the rolled bottom of your jeans. You might prefer to wear a cuff on the bottom of your pants in order to show off your striped socks.

One kind of cuff is at the end of your sleeve or trouser leg, and another is a type of jewelry you might wear around your wrist, like a wide gold cuff. You can also use the word cuff as shorthand for handcuff, the silver kind that police officers put on suspects' wrists during an arrest. The mid-fourteenth century version was cuffe, and it meant "mitten or glove," from the Medieval Latin cuffia, or "head covering.

Definitions of cuff

1. noun

   shackle that consists of a metal loop that can be locked around the wrist; usually used in pairs
   synonyms: handcuff, handlock, manacle

   type of:

   bond, hamper, shackle, trammel

   a restraint that confines or restricts freedom (especially something used to tie down or restrain a prisoner)
2. verb

   confine or restrain with or as if with manacles or handcuffs
   synonyms: handcuff, manacle

   type of:

   fetter, shackle

   restrain with fetters
3. noun

   the lap consisting of a turned-back hem encircling the end of the sleeve or leg
   synonyms: turnup

   types:

   trouser cuff

   a cuff on the bottoms of trouser legs

   type of:

   lap, overlap

   a flap that lies over another part
4. verb

   hit with the hand
   synonyms: whomp

   type of:

   slap

   hit with something flat, like a paddle or the open hand