See toff in All languages combined, or Wiktionary
{
"derived": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "toffish"
},
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "toffy"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Probably an alteration of tuft, referring to the gold tassel on the cap worn by titled undergraduates at English universities.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "toffs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "toff (plural toffs)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"_dis1": "0 0",
"word": "la-di-da"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
{
"_dis": "54 46",
"kind": "other",
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"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "topical",
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"name": "People",
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"Fundamental"
],
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}
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"examples": [
{
"ref": "1899, Rudyard Kipling, “Judson and the Empire”, in Many Inventions, New York: D. Appleton & Company, page 398:",
"text": "Last week down our alley came a toff, / Nice old geyser with a nasty cough, / Sees my missus, takes his topper off, / Quite in a gentlemanly way",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter 5, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC:",
"text": "The cabman scratched his head. \"Well, he wasn't altogether such an easy gentleman to describe. I'd put him at forty years of age, and he was of a middle height, two or three inches shorter than you, sir. He was dressed like a toff, and he had a black beard, cut square at the end, and a pale face. I don't know as I could say more than that.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An elegantly dressed person."
],
"id": "en-toff-en-noun-YUnr8qDC",
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete) An elegantly dressed person."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "macaroni"
},
{
"word": "popinjay"
},
{
"word": "swell"
},
{
"word": "dandy"
}
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "83 17",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "konte",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "конте"
},
{
"_dis1": "83 17",
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "frant",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "франт"
},
{
"_dis1": "83 17",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Stutzer"
},
{
"_dis1": "83 17",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Geck"
}
]
},
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "oik"
},
{
"word": "pleb"
}
],
"categories": [
{
"kind": "other",
"name": "British English",
"parents": [],
"source": "w"
},
{
"kind": "other",
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{
"_dis": "44 56",
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"parents": [
"Entries with incorrect language header",
"Entry maintenance"
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "54 46",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Entries with translation boxes",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "41 59",
"kind": "other",
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"source": "w+disamb"
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{
"_dis": "34 66",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Pages with entries",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "39 61",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 65",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Dutch translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "36 64",
"kind": "other",
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"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "42 58",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Portuguese translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "35 65",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Russian translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "33 67",
"kind": "other",
"name": "Terms with Spanish translations",
"parents": [],
"source": "w+disamb"
},
{
"_dis": "50 50",
"kind": "topical",
"langcode": "en",
"name": "People",
"orig": "en:People",
"parents": [
"Human",
"All topics",
"Fundamental"
],
"source": "w+disamb"
}
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion. Sequel: What Happened Afterwards.”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, page 194:",
"text": "Now Freddy is young, practically twenty years younger than Higgins: he is a gentleman (or, as Eliza would qualify him, a toff), and speaks like one; […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC:",
"text": "“Well, I got Parkes for one, and I got Atkinson for two, and got Ward of Dawson Street. Fine old chap he is, too—regular old toff, old Conservative! ‘But isn’t your candidate a Nationalist?’ said he.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1972, Donald Gould, “A Groundling's Notebook”, in New Scientist, volume 55, number 812, page 512:",
"text": "I came home first class—up the front end with the toffs—semi-anaesthetised throughout the trip by caviar and free champagne—and to hell with frugality and the conservation of resources.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998 April 11, Paul McCartney, Billboard, page 34:",
"text": "George Martin always seemed to me to be a \"toff\" and a gentleman even though his roots, like many of us, were in the common people. George has a touch of class that is quite impressive.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2000 December 18, BBC and Bafta Tribute to Michael Caine, 16:43-17:05:",
"text": "Parkinson: You made films before, but the part that really made your name was Zulu, wasn't it […] and there of course—against type—you played the toff, you played the officer.\nCaine: I played the officer, yeah, and everybody thought I was like that. Everyone was so shocked when they met me, this like Cockney guy had played this toffee-nosed git.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012, John Roberts, How the Dice Fell, page 186:",
"text": "I like to see the toffs being toffs. The women all glammed up, the blokes in their tails and top 'ats, all braying and flinging their money around. Confirms all my prejudices. Just a reminder of who my enemies are.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority."
],
"id": "en-toff-en-noun-9Jfaq0YF",
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"pretension",
"pretension"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, Ireland, derogatory) A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "nob"
},
{
"word": "swell"
},
{
"word": "yah"
}
],
"tags": [
"Ireland",
"UK",
"derogatory"
],
"translations": [
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"word": "fijne mijnheer"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"word": "banjer"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Pinkel"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "alta-roda"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "grã-fino"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "granfa"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "bacana"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "džéntlʹmen",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "дже́нтльмен"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bélaja kostʹ",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бе́лая кость"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gente de arriba"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ricachón"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"Spain"
],
"word": "pijo"
},
{
"_dis1": "16 84",
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"Argentina"
],
"word": "concheto"
}
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/tɒf/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/tɔːf/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"enpr": "tôf",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/tɔf/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"enpr": "tŏf",
"tags": [
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/tɑf/",
"tags": [
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɒf"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɔːf"
}
],
"word": "toff"
}
{
"categories": [
"English countable nouns",
"English entries with incorrect language header",
"English lemmas",
"English nouns",
"Entries with translation boxes",
"Pages with 1 entry",
"Pages with entries",
"Rhymes:English/ɒf",
"Rhymes:English/ɒf/1 syllable",
"Rhymes:English/ɔːf",
"Rhymes:English/ɔːf/1 syllable",
"Terms with Bulgarian translations",
"Terms with Dutch translations",
"Terms with German translations",
"Terms with Portuguese translations",
"Terms with Russian translations",
"Terms with Spanish translations",
"en:People"
],
"derived": [
{
"word": "toffish"
},
{
"word": "toffy"
}
],
"etymology_text": "Probably an alteration of tuft, referring to the gold tassel on the cap worn by titled undergraduates at English universities.",
"forms": [
{
"form": "toffs",
"tags": [
"plural"
]
}
],
"head_templates": [
{
"args": {},
"expansion": "toff (plural toffs)",
"name": "en-noun"
}
],
"lang": "English",
"lang_code": "en",
"pos": "noun",
"related": [
{
"word": "la-di-da"
}
],
"senses": [
{
"categories": [
"English terms with obsolete senses",
"English terms with quotations"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1899, Rudyard Kipling, “Judson and the Empire”, in Many Inventions, New York: D. Appleton & Company, page 398:",
"text": "Last week down our alley came a toff, / Nice old geyser with a nasty cough, / Sees my missus, takes his topper off, / Quite in a gentlemanly way",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, chapter 5, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC:",
"text": "The cabman scratched his head. \"Well, he wasn't altogether such an easy gentleman to describe. I'd put him at forty years of age, and he was of a middle height, two or three inches shorter than you, sir. He was dressed like a toff, and he had a black beard, cut square at the end, and a pale face. I don't know as I could say more than that.\"",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"An elegantly dressed person."
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(obsolete) An elegantly dressed person."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "macaroni"
},
{
"word": "popinjay"
},
{
"word": "swell"
},
{
"word": "dandy"
}
],
"tags": [
"obsolete"
]
},
{
"antonyms": [
{
"word": "oik"
},
{
"word": "pleb"
}
],
"categories": [
"British English",
"English derogatory terms",
"English terms with quotations",
"Irish English",
"Quotation templates to be cleaned"
],
"examples": [
{
"ref": "1912 (date written), [George] Bernard Shaw, “Pygmalion. Sequel: What Happened Afterwards.”, in Androcles and the Lion, Overruled, Pygmalion, London: Constable and Company, published 1916, →OCLC, page 194:",
"text": "Now Freddy is young, practically twenty years younger than Higgins: he is a gentleman (or, as Eliza would qualify him, a toff), and speaks like one; […]",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC:",
"text": "“Well, I got Parkes for one, and I got Atkinson for two, and got Ward of Dawson Street. Fine old chap he is, too—regular old toff, old Conservative! ‘But isn’t your candidate a Nationalist?’ said he.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1972, Donald Gould, “A Groundling's Notebook”, in New Scientist, volume 55, number 812, page 512:",
"text": "I came home first class—up the front end with the toffs—semi-anaesthetised throughout the trip by caviar and free champagne—and to hell with frugality and the conservation of resources.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "1998 April 11, Paul McCartney, Billboard, page 34:",
"text": "George Martin always seemed to me to be a \"toff\" and a gentleman even though his roots, like many of us, were in the common people. George has a touch of class that is quite impressive.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2000 December 18, BBC and Bafta Tribute to Michael Caine, 16:43-17:05:",
"text": "Parkinson: You made films before, but the part that really made your name was Zulu, wasn't it […] and there of course—against type—you played the toff, you played the officer.\nCaine: I played the officer, yeah, and everybody thought I was like that. Everyone was so shocked when they met me, this like Cockney guy had played this toffee-nosed git.",
"type": "quote"
},
{
"ref": "2012, John Roberts, How the Dice Fell, page 186:",
"text": "I like to see the toffs being toffs. The women all glammed up, the blokes in their tails and top 'ats, all braying and flinging their money around. Confirms all my prejudices. Just a reminder of who my enemies are.",
"type": "quote"
}
],
"glosses": [
"A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority."
],
"links": [
[
"derogatory",
"derogatory"
],
[
"pretension",
"pretension"
]
],
"raw_glosses": [
"(UK, Ireland, derogatory) A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority."
],
"synonyms": [
{
"word": "nob"
},
{
"word": "swell"
},
{
"word": "yah"
}
],
"tags": [
"Ireland",
"UK",
"derogatory"
]
}
],
"sounds": [
{
"ipa": "/tɒf/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/tɔːf/",
"tags": [
"Received-Pronunciation"
]
},
{
"enpr": "tôf",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/tɔf/",
"tags": [
"General-American"
]
},
{
"enpr": "tŏf",
"tags": [
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"ipa": "/tɑf/",
"tags": [
"cot-caught-merger"
]
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɒf"
},
{
"rhymes": "-ɔːf"
}
],
"translations": [
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "konte",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"neuter"
],
"word": "конте"
},
{
"code": "bg",
"lang": "Bulgarian",
"roman": "frant",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "франт"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Stutzer"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Geck"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"word": "fijne mijnheer"
},
{
"code": "nl",
"lang": "Dutch",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"word": "banjer"
},
{
"code": "de",
"lang": "German",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "Pinkel"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "alta-roda"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "grã-fino"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "granfa"
},
{
"code": "pt",
"lang": "Portuguese",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine",
"masculine"
],
"word": "bacana"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "džéntlʹmen",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "дже́нтльмен"
},
{
"code": "ru",
"lang": "Russian",
"roman": "bélaja kostʹ",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "бе́лая кость"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"feminine"
],
"word": "gente de arriba"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"masculine"
],
"word": "ricachón"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"Spain"
],
"word": "pijo"
},
{
"code": "es",
"lang": "Spanish",
"sense": "2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it",
"tags": [
"Argentina"
],
"word": "concheto"
}
],
"word": "toff"
}
Download raw JSONL data for toff meaning in English (8.1kB)
This page is a part of the kaikki.org machine-readable English dictionary. This dictionary is based on structured data extracted on 2025-01-10 from the enwiktionary dump dated 2025-01-01 using wiktextract (df33d17 and 4ed51a5). The data shown on this site has been post-processed and various details (e.g., extra categories) removed, some information disambiguated, and additional data merged from other sources. See the raw data download page for the unprocessed wiktextract data.
If you use this data in academic research, please cite Tatu Ylonen: Wiktextract: Wiktionary as Machine-Readable Structured Data, Proceedings of the 13th Conference on Language Resources and Evaluation (LREC), pp. 1317-1325, Marseille, 20-25 June 2022. Linking to the relevant page(s) under https://kaikki.org would also be greatly appreciated.