English
Etymology
From (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Middle English tuft, toft, tofte, an alteration of earlier *tuffe (> Modern English tuff), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Old French touffe, tuffe, toffe, tofe (“tuft”) (modern French touffe), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "LL." is not valid. See WT:LOL. (near Vegezio) tufa (“helmet crest”), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Lua error in Module:parameters at line 95: Parameter 1 should be a valid language code; the value "gem" is not valid. See WT:LOL. (compare Old English þūf (“tuft”), Old Norse þúfa (“mound”), Swedish tuva (“tussock; grassy hillock”)), from (deprecated template usage) [etyl] Proto-Germanic *þūbǭ (tube), *þūbaz; akin to Latin tūber (“hump, swelling”), Ancient Greek τῡ́φη (tū́phē, “cattail (used to stuff beds)”). Cognate with Late Egyptian ṯwfj (“papyrus; papyrus thicket”). And with Hebrew סוף sûp (“reed, finish, edge or tuff”).
Pronunciation
Noun
tuft (plural tufts)
- A bunch of feathers, grass or hair, etc., held together at the base.
- A cluster of threads drawn tightly through upholstery, a mattress or a quilt, etc., to secure and strengthen the padding.
- A small clump of trees or bushes.
- (historical) A gold tassel on the cap worn by titled undergraduates at English universities.
- (historical) A person entitled to wear such a tassel.
- T. Hughes
- Several young tufts, and others of the faster men.
Derived terms
Translations
bunch
- Armenian: please add this translation if you can
- Catalan: floc (ca) m
- Chinese:
- Mandarin: 綹／绺 (zh) (liǔ), 绺 (zh) (liǔ)
- Dutch: pluk (nl) m, bundel (nl) m
- Esperanto: tufo (eo)
- Finnish: töyhtö, tupsu (fi)
- French: touffe (fr) f
- Galician: guedello m, guecho m, caramiñola f, feixe (gl) m, gavela f, mostea f, topete m
- German: Büschel (de) n, Tuff (de) m
- Hungarian: fürt (hu) (hair), csomó (hu) (grass)
- Ido: tufo (io)
- Irish: dual m, dlaoi f
- (deprecated template usage)
{{trans-mid}}
- Italian: cespo (it) m, ciuffo (it) m, ciocca (it), zolla (it) f
- Latin: torulus n
- Maori: pūrekireki (referring to sedge or reeds in a swamp), puia
- Mongolian: туг (mn) (tug)
- Norman: toupet m, tun m, tus m
- Polish: kępka (pl) f
- Portuguese: tufo (pt) m
- Romanian: smoc (ro) n, floc (ro), șuviță (ro) f
- Russian: (feathers, grass, hair) пучо́к (ru) m (pučók)
- Spanish: mechón (es) m (hair), penacho m (feathers), manojo (es) m (grass), haz (es) (twigs), champa (es) f
- Swedish: tova c (hair), tuva (sv) c (grass)
- Thai: please add this translation if you can
- Welsh: cudyn m, twffyn m
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person wearing the tassel
Verb
tuft (third-person singular simple present tufts, present participle tufting, simple past and past participle tufted)
- (transitive) To provide or decorate with a tuft or tufts.
- (Can we find and add a quotation of Thomson to this entry?)
- (transitive) To form into tufts.
- (transitive) To secure and strengthen (a mattress, quilt, etc.) with tufts.
- (intransitive) To be formed into tufts.
Translations
provide or decorate with tufts
