tuff

English

Etymology 1

From Old English tōh, from Proto-Germanic *tanhuz

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʌf/

• Audio (US)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌf
• Homophone: tough

Adjective

tuff (comparative tuffer, superlative tuffest)

1. older and simplified spelling of tough

   • 1980, Joy Wilt Berry, Ernie Hergenroeder, Tuff Stuff: A Children's Book about Trauma^[1], Educational Products Division, Word, Inc., ISBN 9780849981364:

     Tuff Stuff teaches that while life may go smoothly most of the time, ...

   • 2000, Margaret Cavendish, “Preface to the Reader (1655)”, in Sylvia Bowerbank, Sara Mendelson editor, Paper Bodies^[2], ISBN 9781551111735, page 139:

     … yet never to make us so strong as the strongest of Men, whose Sinnews are tuffer, and Bones stronger, and Joints closer, and Flesh firmer, than ours are …

   • 2003, Ronald Carter, The Routledge Guide to Modern English Writing^[3], Language Arts, Routledge, ISBN 9780415286367, page 96:

     It was rave reviewed in the Caribbean Times as 'the ruffest, tuffest and the boo-yacka of all modern gangster novels'.

   • 2006, Paige Hemmis, The Tuff Chix Guide to Easy Home Improvement^[4], Penguin, ISBN 9780452287617, page 36:

     TUFF METER

   • 2010 January 20, Robert J. Elisberg, “CES 2020 -- Ohm on the Range”, Huffington Post, accessed on 2012-09-14:

     Its Tuff-n-Tiny USB flash drive is about the size of a thumbnail. … The company insists that the "tuff" part of the name is well-earned for being waterproof, dustproof and you can drive a car over it.

   • 2011, Kristian Pope, Tuff Stuff Professional Wrestling Field Guide: Legend and Lore^[5], Krause Publications, ISBN 9781440228100:

     Tuff Stuff Professional Wrestling

References

• Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia, tuff

Wikipedia

Etymology 2

From French tuffe, tuf, from Italian tufo, from Latin tōfus.

Pronunciation

• IPA: /tʌf/, X-SAMPA: /tVf/
• Homophone: tough

Noun

tuff (countable and uncountable; plural tuffs)

1. (geology) A light porous rock, now especially a rock composed of compacted volcanic ash varying in size from fine sand to coarse gravel.
   • 2004, Richard Fortey, The Earth, Folio Society 2011, p. 9n:

     This is what makes an ignimbrite; the general term for this kind of volcaniclastic rock is ‘tuff’.

Related terms

• tufflava

Translations

a rock composed of compacted volcanic ash

• Dutch: tufsteen (nl)
• Finnish: tuffi (fi)
• German: Tuff (de) m, Tuffstein (de) m

• Italian: tufo (it) m
• Polish: tuf wulkaniczny m
• Serbo-Croatian: sedra (sh) f