Tufty
adj, noun, slang ·Moderate ·College level
Definitions
- 1 The tufted duck (Aythya fuligula). British, informal
"Buoyant. That's a tufty. Well, tufted duck, to be formal, but the name always sounds more like tufty duck, and there is something inspiringly matey about a tufty: we are on nickname terms with the bird at first glance."
- 1 Having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair, etc., held together at the base”).
"There was a bed of nothing but mignonette and another of nothing but pansies—borders of double and single daisies and all kinds of little tufty plants she had never seen before."
- 2 Of a cow: seeking a bull to mate with. obsolete
- 3 Covered in or having many tufts.
"Witneſs, thou best Anâna, thou the pride / Of vegetable life, beyond whate’er / The poets imaged in the golden age: / Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat, / Spread thy ambroſial ſtores, and feaſt with Jove!"
- 4 Covered in or having many tufts.; Covered with tufts (“small clumps of bushes or trees”). obsolete, rare
"The Sylvans that about the neighbouring vvoods did dvvell, / Both in the tufty Frith and in the moſſy Fell, / Forſook their gloomy Bovvres, and vvandred farre abroad, / Expeld their quiet fears, and place of their abode, […]"
- 5 Growing in tufts.
"If you haue ſeene at foot of ſome braue hill, / Tvvo Springs ariſe, and delicately trill, / In gentle chidings through an humble dale, / (VVhere tufty Daizies nod at euery gale) […]"
Synonyms
All synonymsExample
More examples"There was a bed of nothing but mignonette and another of nothing but pansies—borders of double and single daisies and all kinds of little tufty plants she had never seen before."
Etymology
From tuft + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives).
From tuft(ed duck) + -y (diminutive suffix).
Origin unknown.
Related phrases
More for "tufty"
Data sourced from Wiktionary, WordNet, CMU, and other open linguistic databases. Updated March 2026.