Pa. t. and pple. coifed. [orig. app. ad. OF. coifer, coiffer, f. coife, coiffe, a COIF; but in later usage treated as a native formation from coif as an Eng. word; cf. to cap, bonnet, etc.]
1. trans. To provide or cover with a coif; to invest with the sergeant’s coif; to cover as with a coif.
1530. Palsgr., 488/2. I coyfe, I put a coyfe upon ones heed.
1611. Cotgr., Coiffer, to coyfe, weare a coyfe, put on a coyfe.
1658. J. Harrington, Prerog. Pop. Govt., II. iii. (1700), 345. There be in these times that are coif’d with such Opinions, that to shew Scripture to be Reason, is to make it lose weight with them.
1714. Arbuthnot, etc. Martin Scribl. (T.). You, eloquent oyster-merchants of Billingsgate (just ready to be called to the bar, and coifed like your sister-serjeants).
1755. Smollett, Quix. (1803), I. 259. He would not suffer himself to be coifed [i.e., with a woman’s coif], but covered his head with a quilted linen night-cap.
1758. J. G. Cooper, Call Aristippus, iv. (R.). Whilst wanton boys … coife me, where I’m bald, with flow’rs.
1870. Morris, Earthly Par., II. III. 466. What fair cloth may coif my head.
2. To dress, arrange, or make up (the hair). Cf. coiffure, and paragraph below.
1862. Merivale, Rom. Emp. (1865), V. xli. 95. The hair was to be sedulously coifed.
Hence Coifing ppl. a.
1867. Jean Ingelow, Story of Doom, V. 231. Like the travelling sun, Setting, all clad in coifing clouds of gold.
¶ To express the ordinary sense of mod.F. coiffer to dress or arrange the hair or head, various modifications of that word are in use with coiffeurs and their clients, as to coiffe, to coiffé. So coiffed is sometimes used to reproduce F. coiffé, in reference to the coiffe of French countrywomen, etc.
1835. Willis, Pencillings, II. lxii. 174. The soubrette who sells you a cigar is coiffed as for a ball.
1880. ‘Ouida,’ Moths, III. 19. Handsome women … coifféed to perfection.
1884. E. Jenkins, Week of Passion, I. viii. 241. Her abundant dark hair was coiffed with a glittering spray of diamonds.
1888. P. Fitzgerald, Fatal Zero, viii. 34. Washing, cleaning, coifféing these aristocrats.
1889. Q. Rev., Oct., 300. Sometimes ‘the hair’ was coifféed in rolls.
Coif, obs. Sc. form of COVE a hollow.
Coif, erroneous form of QUAICH, cup.
