TUFT
tuft
(noun) a bunch of feathers or hair
tuft, tussock
(noun) a bunch of hair or feathers or growing grass
Source: WordNet® 3.1
Proper noun
Tuft (plural Tufts)
A surname.
Statistics
• According to the 2010 United States Census, Tuft is the 29309th most common surname in the United States, belonging to 807 individuals. Tuft is most common among White (76.21%) and Black/African American (20.94%) individuals.
Etymology
Noun
tuft (plural tufts)
A bunch of feathers, grass or hair, etc, held together at the base.
A cluster of threads drawn tightly through upholstery, a mattress or a quilt, etc, to secure and strengthen the padding.
A small clump of trees or bushes.
(historical) A gold tassel on the cap worn by titled undergraduates at English universities.
(historical) A person entitled to wear such a tassel.
• T. Hughes
Verb
tuft (third-person singular simple present tufts, present participle tufting, simple past and past participle tufted)
(transitive) To provide or decorate with a tuft or tufts.
(transitive) To form into tufts.
(transitive) To secure and strengthen (a mattress, quilt, etc.) with tufts.
(intransitive) To be formed into tufts.
Source: Wiktionary
Tuft, n. Etym: [Prov. E. tuff, F. touffe; of German origin; cf. G.
zopf a weft of hair, pigtail, top of a tree. See Top summit.]
1. A collection of small, flexible, or soft things in a knot or
bunch; a waving or bending and spreading cluster; as, a tuft of
flowers or feathers.
2. A cluster; a clump; as, a tuft of plants.
Under a tuft of shade. Milton.
Green lake, and cedar fuft, and spicy glade. Keble.
3. A nobleman, or person of quality, especially in the English
universities; -- so called from the tuft, or gold tassel, on the cap
worn by them. [Cant, Eng.]
Several young tufts, and others of the faster men. T. Hughes.
Tuft, v. t. [imp. & p. p. Tufted; p. pr. & vb. n. Tufting.]
1. To separate into tufts.
2. To adorn with tufts or with a tuft. Thomson.
Tuft, v. i.
Definition: To grow in, or form, a tuft or tufts.
Source: Webster’s Unabridged Dictionary 1913 Edition