tuft

• POS: Noun, Verb (transitive)

CIDE DICTIONARY

tuft, n. [Prov. E. tuff, F. touffe; of German origin; cf. G. zopf a weft of hair, pigtail, top of a tree. See Top summit.].

•  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.  [1913 Webster]
•  A cluster; a clump; as, a tuft of plants.  [1913 Webster]

  "Under a tuft of shade."  [1913 Webster]

  "Green lake, and cedar fuft, and spicy glade."  [1913 Webster]
•  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.  [1913 Webster]

  "Several young tufts, and others of the faster men."  [1913 Webster]

tuft, v. t. 

•  To separate into tufts.  [1913 Webster]
•  To adorn with tufts or with a tuft.  Thomson.  [1913 Webster]

tuft, v. i. 

 To grow in, or form, a tuft or tufts.  [1913 Webster]

OXFORD DICTIONARY

tuft, n. & v.
--n.
1 a bunch or collection of threads, grass, feathers, hair, etc., held or growing together at the base.
2 Anat. a bunch of small blood-vessels.
--v.
1 tr. provide with a tuft or tufts.
2 tr. make depressions at regular intervals in (a mattress etc.) by passing a thread through.
3 intr. grow in tufts.

Derivative

tufty adj.

Etymology

ME, prob. f. OF tofe, toffe, of unkn. orig.: for -t cf. GRAFT(1)

THESAURUS

tuft

Vandyke, bang, bangs, batch, beard, beaver, bristles, bunch, clump, cluster, copse, crest, crop, down, feather, fetlock, fleck, flock, forelock, fringe, goatee, group, grouping, groupment, grove, growth, hackle, hassock, imperial, knot, lot, mess, panache, peach fuzz, pinion, plantation, planting, plume, plumule, quiff, quill, scapular, shock, side whiskers, slew, stand, stook, stubble, thicket, topknot, tussock, whiskers, wisp

ROGET THESAURUS

tuft

Assemblage

N assemblage, collection, collocation, colligation, compilation, levy, gathering, ingathering, muster, attroupement, team, concourse, conflux, congregation, contesseration, convergence, meeting, levee, reunion, drawing room, at home, conversazione, assembly, congress, convention, conventicle, gemote, conclave, posse, posse comitatus, Noah's ark, miscellany, collectanea, museum, menagerie, museology, crowd, throng, group, flood, rush, deluge, rabble, mob, press, crush, cohue, horde, body, tribe, crew, gang, knot, squad, band, party, swarm, shoal, school, covey, flock, herd, drove, atajo, bunch, drive, force, mulada, remuda, roundup, array, bevy, galaxy, corps, company, troop, troupe, task force, army, regiment, host, populousness, clan, brotherhood, fraternity, sorority, association, volley, shower, storm, cloud, group, cluster, Pleiades, clump, pencil, set, batch, lot, pack, budget, assortment, bunch, parcel, packet, package, bundle, fascine, fasces, bale, seron, seroon, fagot, wisp, truss, tuft, shock, rick, fardel, stack, sheaf, haycock, fascicle, fascicule, fasciculus, gavel, hattock, stook, accumulation, congeries, heap, lump, pile, rouleau, tissue, mass, pyramid, bing, drift, snowball, snowdrift, acervation, cumulation, glomeration, agglomeration, conglobation, conglomeration, conglomerate, coacervate, coacervation, coagmentation, aggregation, concentration, congestion, omnium gaterum, spicilegium, black hole of Calcutta, quantity, collector, gatherer, whip, whipper in, assembled, closely packed, dense, serried, crowded to suffocation, teeming, swarming, populous, as thick as hops, all of a heap, fasciculated cumulative, the plot thickens, acervatim, tibi seris tibi metis.

Roughness

N roughness, tooth, grain, texture, ripple, asperity, rugosity, salebrosity, corrugation, nodosity, arborescence, pilosity, brush, hair, beard, shag, mane, whisker, moustache, imperial, tress, lock, curl, ringlet, fimbriae, pili, cilia, villi, lovelock, beaucatcher, curl paper, goatee, papillote, scalp lock, plumage, plumosity, plume, panache, crest, feather, tuft, fringe, toupee, wool, velvet, plush, nap, pile, floss, fur, down, byssus, moss, bur, fluff, knot (convolution), rough, uneven, scabrous, scaly, knotted, rugged, rugose, rugous, knurly, asperous, crisp, salebrous, gnarled, unpolished, unsmooth, roughhewn, craggy, cragged, crankling, scraggy, prickly, arborescent, leafy, well-wooded, feathery, plumose, plumigerous, laciniate, laciniform, laciniose, pappose, pileous, pilose, trichogenous, trichoid, tufted, fimbriated, hairy, ciliated, filamentous, hirsute, crinose, crinite, bushy, hispid, villous, pappous, bearded, pilous, shaggy, shagged, fringed, befringed, setous, setose, setaceous, like quills upon the fretful porcupine, rough as a nutmeg grater, rough as a bear, downy, velvety, flocculent, woolly, lanate, lanated, lanuginous, lanuginose, tomentose, fluffy, against the grain, cabello luengo y corto el seso.