Definition of "zarf" []

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

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "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."
• "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."
• "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."