Word.ws English Dictionary

tufty

/ˈtʌfti/

tufty adjective: having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair, etc., held together at the base”).

tufty: having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair, etc., held together at the base”)
Image: El pitareio, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons

Adjective (1)

tufty (comparative tuftier, superlative tuftiest)

  1. Having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair, etc., held together at the base”).
    • There was a bed of nothing but mignonette and another of nothing but pansies—borders of double and single daisies and all kinds of little tufty plants she had never seen before.1918 June, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, chapter 6, page 32
    • Here he stood for a moment looking up and down the narrow road and the heavy snowflakes covered his shoulders and his tufty, ill-kempt hair.1933, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter XXXIV, in The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published 1934, →OCLC, page 307
    Synonyms:
    penicillate
  2. Covered in or having many tufts.
    • Witneſs, thou best Anâna, thou the pride / Of vegetable life, beyond whate’er / The poets imaged in the golden age: / Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat, / Spread thy ambroſial ſtores, and feaſt with Jove!a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 72, lines 685–689
    • In and out of the tufts they went, with their eyes dilating; wishing to be out of harm, if conscience were but satisfied. And of this tufty flaggy ground, pocked with bogs and boglets, one especial nature is that it will not hold impressions.1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter VII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 111
    Synonyms:
    tufted
    1. (obsolete, rare) Covered with tufts (“small clumps of bushes or trees”).
      • The Sylvans that about the neighbouring vvoods did dvvell, / Both in the tufty Frith and in the moſſy Fell, / Forſook their gloomy Bovvres, and vvandred farre abroad, / Expeld their quiet fears, and place of their abode, […]1612, Michael Drayton, “The Seuenteenth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of...
  3. Growing in tufts.
    • If you haue ſeene at foot of ſome braue hill, / Tvvo Springs ariſe, and delicately trill, / In gentle chidings through an humble dale, / (VVhere tufty Daizies nod at euery gale) […]1613, William Browne, “The Fifth Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. [The First Booke], London: […] Geo[rge] Norton, […], →OCLC, page 122

Noun

tufty (plural tufties)

  1. (UK, informal) The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula).
    • Buoyant. That's a tufty. Well, tufted duck, to be formal, but the name always sounds more like tufty duck, and there is something inspiringly matey about a tufty: we are on nickname terms with the bird at first glance.2005, Simon Barnes, “Tufted Duck”, in A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion … Or A Personal Introduction to Britain’s 50 Most Obvious Birds, London: Short Books, →ISBN, page 101

Adjective (2)

tufty (comparative tuftier, superlative tuftiest)

  1. (obsolete) Of a cow: seeking a bull to mate with.

Synonyms of tufty

Forms of tufty

Adjective
comparativetuftier
superlativetuftiest
Noun
pluraltufties

Origin of tufty

From tuft + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives).

From tuft(ed duck) + -y (diminutive suffix).

Origin unknown.

Words formed from tufty

Words that rhyme with tufty

Questions about tufty

What does tufty mean?
Tufty means having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair, etc., held together at the base”).
What part of speech is tufty?
Tufty can be an adjective or a noun.
How do you pronounce tufty?
Tufty is pronounced /ˈtʌfti/ (UK).

Words near tufty in the dictionary

  1. Tuftonboro
  2. tufts
  3. Tuftses
  4. tuftsin
  5. tuftsins
  6. tufty
  7. TUFU
  8. tug
  9. tug at someone's heart strings
  10. tug at someone's heartstrings
  11. tug boat

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: tufty (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

Last updated:

Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: LL-Q1860 (eng)-Vealhurl-tufty.wav.

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