cloffn.
/klɒf/ Commerce.
An allowance (now of 2 lbs. in 3 cwt., or 1/ 168), given with certain commodities, in order that the weight may hold good when they are sold by retail. According to Grafton, 1568, cloff was the grocer's name for the fixed allowance made to the buyer in lieu of the variable advantage which he formerly had through the inclination in his favour of the King's Beam, a practice abolished in 1269. (See also the Ordinance of Staples, 1353, c. 10.) But there is a long gap between 1269 and c1503, the date of the earliest evidence. Fabyan, whom Grafton copies verbatim for his text, has no mention of cloff.
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the world > relative properties > measurement > measurement by weighing > [noun] > amount determined by weighing > deduction to give net weight > other allowances
cloffc1503
tretc1503
draughta1513
draft1757
taring1882
c1503 R. Arnold Chron. f. xlvij/2 Wherof..shulde be rebated for the tare of euery of the said xij. bales iiij. ll. and for the cloff of euery off the said xij. bales ij. ll...& for the tret of ye same peper C. xxxvij. ll.
1569 R. Grafton Chron. II. 131 It was ordeyned that the Beame should stande vpright..enclinyng to neyther partie,..and the buyer to have of the seller allowed vnto him for all thinges * foure pounde of the hundreth. [margin] *This is that allowance yt Grocers call Cloffe.
1660 T. Willsford Scales Commerce & Trade i. i. 24 Cloffe..is onely an allowance for the refuse of the commodity, which hangs upon the chest or cask, for which is usually allowed but 3 or 4 pound in every parcel.
1828 Hutton Pract. Arithm., Tare & Tret Cloff is an allowance of 2 lb. for every 3 cwt., and some say for every 100 lb. of tret-suttle, to make the weight hold good when sold by retail.
This entry has not yet been fully updated (first published 1891; most recently modified version published online June 2022).
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