Hypertext Webster Gateway: "tuft"
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tuft \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.]
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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tuft \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.
From Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary (1913) (web1913)
Tuft \Tuft\, v. i.
To grow in, or form, a tuft or tufts.
From WordNet (r) 1.7 (wn)
tuft
n 1: a bunch of hair or feathers or growing grass [syn: {tussock}]
2: a bunch of feathers or hair
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