toff

American  

[tof] / tɒf /

noun

British Informal.

toffs plural

1. a stylishly dressed, fashionable person, especially one who is or wants to be considered a member of the upper class.

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toff British  

/ tɒf /

noun

1. slang a rich, well-dressed, or upper-class person, esp a man

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• toffs
  plural

Etymology

Origin of toff

First recorded in 1850–55; perhaps variant of tuft

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

toff toffs

Is he a sociopath or merely an entitled toff?

From New York Times ● Apr. 21, 2022

A lot of thought seems to have gone into Johnson’s self-presentation as someone indifferent to appearances — a toff but with scuffed shoes familiar with the grass roots.

From Washington Post ● Feb. 2, 2022

Citibank internship led to Deutsche Bank job, and after a few years she was an equity derivatives trader at Deutsche, holding her own against the toff sharks of the City of London.

From The Verge ● May 12, 2021

John is still into Bulgaria and piano-playing, has survived a nasty fall from a horse, and resents having been typecast as a Tory toff.

From The New Yorker ● Nov. 27, 2019

That spirit alarmed and discomfited many Europeans, toff and peasant alike.

From "1491" by Charles C. Mann

These toffs are still calling this drink orgeat for some reason, even though, now, it contains no barley at all.

From Seattle Times ● Jun. 15, 2022

In the postwar decades, the first-person “I” was both an author’s highly distinctive ego and a proxy for a middle class no longer in competition with the capitalist toffs.

From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 2, 2021

The setting is an absurdly palatial Italianate hotel — a perfect Depression-era fantasy — with a soundstage canal and extras swanked up like toffs.

From New York Times ● Apr. 22, 2020

One of the most successful efforts mounted by Grinnell and his fellow toffs was stopping the widespread slaughter of birds so that their feathers could adorn women’s hats.

From Washington Post ● Jul. 18, 2019

We might even wind up having tea and cakes at the Savoy Cafe with the nobs and toffs of Limerick.

From "Angela's Ashes: A Memoir" by Frank McCourt