Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • noun A chalicelike holder for a hot coffee cup, typically made of ornamented metal, used in the Middle East.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • noun A holder for a coffee-cup:

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • noun (Art) A metallic cuplike stand used for holding a finjan.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • noun an ornamental container designed to hold a coffee cup and insulate it from the hand of the imbiber

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • noun an ornamental metal cup-shaped holder for a hot coffee cup

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Arabic ẓarf, container.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Turkish zarf, from Arabic ظَرْف ẓarf, "container"

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Examples

  • It was served in small cups without handles (known as fincan), which were placed in holders known as zarf (from the Arabic word, meaning container, envelope) to protect the cup and also the fingers of the drinker from the hot fluid.

    Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle 2010

  • It was served in small cups without handles (known as fincan), which were placed in holders known as zarf (from the Arabic word, meaning container, envelope) to protect the cup and also the fingers of the drinker from the hot fluid.

    Rex Parker Does the NYT Crossword Puzzle Rex Parker 2010

  • Muslims have a fantastic ability to turn on and off their "deeply sincere" beliefs when it comes to fooling non-Muslims, whether selling in a souk (that metalwork zarf-and-finjan set in Morocco, the hubble-bubble pipe in Egypt, the carpet in Damascus), or outside the souk, selling Infidels a bill of goods.

    Jihad Watch 2009

  • Muslims have a fantastic ability to turn on and off their "deeply sincere" beliefs when it comes to fooling non-Muslims, whether selling in a souk (that metalwork zarf-and-finjan set in Morocco, the hubble-bubble pipe in Egypt, the carpet in Damascus), or outside the souk, selling Infidels a bill of goods.

    Israelated - English Israel blogs 2009

  • Yeh log toh hameshaa hii aallah-zarf log rahe hain (people of higher intelect), how can we imagine to put ourselves at a higher level vis-a-vis them and do the critiqing on them because we can do critiqing on another person only when we are at a level which is "one plus" the person we are attempting to criticise.

    Kafila 2009

  • i projeler dahilinde belirli zamanlar zarf? nda vatan?

    We Blog A Lot 2008

Comments

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  • the thing that goes around a coffee cup so that you don't burn your fingers

    December 2, 2006

  • See finjan (the handleless coffee cup that fits inside a zarf).

    February 26, 2007

  • You see something like this all the time in Russia, where they drink hot tea in a glass (called �?такан – stakan) which you hold with a metal holder, called под�?таканник – podstakannik, which means "under-stakan-device". I wonder if they got this from the Muslim Tatars who ruled Russia in the Middle Ages, and if so, maybe this podstakannik is cousin to the zarf.

    May 12, 2008

  • They even provide them for you when you order a cup of tea on the train ... very elegant.

    May 12, 2008


  • It's a bubbling mix of siphons and perks

    And musical names for sensual works.

    Like neck to a scarf

    Is finjan to zarf

    And hookahs soothe throats of the Turks.

    April 4, 2014