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toff - 4 dictionary results

toff

[tof]
–noun British Informal.
a stylishly dressed, fashionable person, esp. one who is or wants to be considered a member of the upper class.

Origin:
1850–55; perh. var. of tuft
toff   (tŏf)   
n.   Chiefly British Slang
A member of the upper classes, especially one who is elegantly dressed: "champagne, once a raffish drink suitable for toffs and weddings" (Ian Jack).

[Probably variant of tuft, a gold tassel worn by titled students at Oxford and Cambridge.]

Toff

Toff\, n. [Etym. uncertain.] A fop; a beau; a swell. [Slang, Eng.] --Kipling.

toff 
lower-class British slang for "stylish dresser, member of the smart set," 1851, probably an alteration of tuft, formerly an Oxford Univ. term for a nobleman or gentleman-commoner (1755), in ref. to the gold ornamental tassel worn on the caps of undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge whose fathers were peers with votes in the House of Lords.
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