toft
Americannoun
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the site of a house and outbuildings.
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a house site and its adjoining arable land.
noun
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a homestead
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an entire holding, consisting of a homestead and the attached arable land
Etymology
Origin of toft
before 1050; Middle English, late Old English < ?
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Each building is called a toft, a Norse-derived word for farmhouse or homestead.
From New York Times ● Sep. 18, 2015
A toft," says Dr. Whitaker, "is a homestead in a village, so called from the small tufts of maple, elm, ash, and other wood, with which dwelling-houses were anciently overhung.
From View of the State of Europe during the Middle Ages, Vol. 3 by Hallam, Henry
It befell on a fair sunny morning of spring, that Ralph sat alone on the toft by the rock-house, for Ursula had gone down the meadow to disport her and to bathe in the river.
From The Well at the World's End: a tale by Morris, William
In Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire thorpe is comparatively rare, while toft is not found at all.
From Scandinavian influence on Southern Lowland Scotch by Flom, George Tobias
Chaucer uses it of the tip of the Miller's nose "Upon the cope right of his nose he hade A werte, and thereon stood a toft of herys."
From The Romance of Names by Weekley, Ernest
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
