coif

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Hairspray-attracted every imaginable kind of coif, all getting a little higher and harder as the raves poured in.

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Definitions (25)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (6)

  1. noun A coiffure.
  2. noun A tight-fitting cap worn under a veil, as by nuns.
  3. noun A white skullcap formerly worn by English lawyers.

Toggle Century definitions Century Dictionary (13)

Toggle GNU Webster definitions GNU Webster's 1913 (2)

Toggle WordNet definitions WordNet (4)

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Examples (50)

  • The razor tip of his new liege-lady's sword rested very lightly against the throat of his mail coif, a slight push would crush his larynx, or even pierce the mail—she used a sword with a lighter blade and a longer point than most in the Protectorate. —  Map.html
  • All that slips from her body into the salt foam which ripples round her feet But little she cares for her coif or for her apparel carried away by the tide! —  Saint Augustin
  • The coif was a ubiquitous white skullcap worn throughout the Middle Ages. —  All Categories Featured Content - Associated Content
  • People talk about hair - from Mitt Romney's perfectly sprayed coif, —  JammieWearingFool
  • "Meditation allows any human being to dive within and transcend, which means to go beyond," said Lynch, whose signature salt-and-pepper coif is as wild as his famously surrealistic films including "Blue Velvet" and "Mulholland Drive" and his television series "Twin Peaks." —  ABC News: ABCNews
 

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This word has been looked up 156 times.

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Etymologies (3)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (1)

  1. Middle English, from Old French coife, from Late Latin cofea, helmet, of Germanic origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (2)

  1. Early modern English also quoif, quife; from Middle English coif, coyfe, from Old French coife, coiffe, French coiffe = Spanish cofia = Portuguese coifa = Italian cuffia, from Middle Latin cofia, cofea, cofa (later Provencal cofa), cuphia, etc., prob. from Middle High German kuffe, kupfe, Old High German chuppa, chuppha, a cap worn under the helmet, from Old High German chuph, choph, Middle High German G. kopf, the head: see cop, cup.
  2. from coif, n.
 

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/kɔɪf/
by American Heritage

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