tuff
1 Americanadjective
noun
-
tuffs
plural
noun
Other Word Forms
Derived Forms
Inflected Forms
Nouns
Etymology
Origin of tuff
1560–70; < French tuf < Italian tufo. See tufa
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.
See Examples For:
The volcano could build a tuff cone with a long lived vent crater, or the new land could quickly collapse and erode away.
From Science Daily ● Jul. 10, 2026
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
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
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
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
He was thinner than ever, large tuffs of hair had fallen out leaving wide bald patches, and he writhed in Ron’s hands as though desperate to free himself.
From "Harry Potter And The Prisoner Of Azkaban" by J.K. Rowling
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.
