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toff

[tof]
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noun British Informal.
  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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Origin of toff

First recorded in 1850–55; perhaps variant of tuft
Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2018

Examples from the Web for toffs

Contemporary Examples

Historical Examples

  • When you go on your trip for action in the Bois among the toffs, will you take me with you?

    Caught In The Net

    Emile Gaboriau

  • Is this the way you treat the toffs, when they come to see you?

  • You're a toff, that's what you are, and your lines has been laid for toffs.

  • We could see the toffs in evening dress idling in the glow of her electric lights.

    The Sea and the Jungle

    H. M. Tomlinson

  • There's hundreds of toffs in England and Injia'd give their ears for a day after these, you know.

    An Outback Marriage

    Andrew Barton Paterson

British Dictionary definitions for toffs

toff

noun
  1. British slang a rich, well-dressed, or upper-class person, esp a man
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Word Origin

C19: perhaps variant of tuft, nickname for a titled student at Oxford University, wearing a cap with a gold tassel
Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for toffs

toff

n.

lower-class British slang for "stylish dresser, member of the smart set," 1851, said to be probably an alteration of tuft, formerly an Oxford University term for a nobleman or gentleman-commoner (1755), in reference to the gold ornamental tassel worn on the caps of undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge whose fathers were peers with votes in the House of Lords.

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Online Etymology Dictionary, © 2010 Douglas Harper