tuff

¹ American  

[tuhf] / tʌf /

adjective

Slang.

1. tough.

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tuff ² American  

[tuhf] / tʌf /

noun

Geology.

• tuffs
  plural

1. a fragmental rock consisting of the smaller kinds of volcanic detritus, as ash or cinder, usually more or less stratified.

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tuff British  

/ tʌf /

noun

1. a rock formed by the fusing together on the ground of small rock fragments (less than 2 mm across) ejected from a volcano

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tuff Scientific  

/ tŭf /

1. A rock made up of particles of volcanic ash, varying in size from fine sand to coarse gravel.

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Other Word Forms

Derived Forms

• tuffaceous
  adjective

Inflected Forms

Nouns

• tuffs
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of tuff

1560–70; < French tuf < Italian tufo. See tufa

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Example Sentences

See Examples For:

tuff tuffs

The trilobite fossils were trapped between layers of petrified ash in sandstone, the product of old volcanic eruptions that settled on the sea floor and formed a green layer called a tuff.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2023

The river tracks a diverse landscape from the southern edge of the Rocky Mountains through rugged basalt hillsides, layers of volcanic tuff, and the red and yellow cliffs made famous by painter Georgia O’Keeffe.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 18, 2021

The point is “GOATs” do not quit when the going gets tuff.

From Los Angeles Times ● Aug. 1, 2021

"And 'meeting/trusting' people in my position is really tuff," she noted.

From Fox News ● Oct. 5, 2019

“Yo, that was kinda tuff, though. We should add that to the routine when we get home.”

From "Monday's Not Coming" by Tiffany D. Jackson

It is rare to find tuffs from this particular period of time, the late Cambrian period, between 497 and 485 million years ago.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2023

Unlike some other kinds of rocks or sediment, tuffs contain crystals of zircon -- a mineral that formed during an eruption and are, as the name of the rock layer containing them suggests, tough.

From Science Daily ● Nov. 21, 2023

In an ocean core collected in 1981, they found volcanic tuffs indicating a sharp increase in volcanism during the PETM.

From Science Magazine ● Jun. 23, 2022

Remelting of cumulates as a process for producing chemical zoning in silicic tuffs: a comparison of cool, wet and hot, dry rhyolitic magma systems.

From Nature ● Dec. 12, 2017

In Louisiana, Mom had us climb up on the roof of the car and pull down tuffs of Spanish moss hanging from the tree branches.

From "The Glass Castle" by Jeannette Walls

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