toff meaning (obsolete): definition, etymology and quotations

toff

noun

UK /tɒf/ · US /tɔf/

Etymology Probably an alteration of tuft, referring to the gold tassel on the cap worn by titled undergraduates at English universities.

Obsolete An elegantly dressed person.

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 way1899, Rudyard Kipling, “Judson and the Empire”, in Many Inventions, New York: D. Appleton & Company, page 398:
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."1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “Three Broken Threads”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC, pages 102–103:

Ireland, UK, Derogatory A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority.

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; […]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:
‘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.[…]’1904–1907 (date written), James Joyce, “Ivy Day in the Committee Room”, in Dubliners, London: Grant Richards, published June 1914, →OCLC, page 160:

4 more examples

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.1972, Donald Gould, “A Groundling's Notebook”, in New Scientist, volume 55, number 812, page 512:
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.1998 April 11, Paul McCartney, Billboard, page 34:
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. Caine: 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.2000 December 18, BBC and Bafta Tribute to Michael Caine, 16:43-17:05:
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.2012, John Roberts, How the Dice Fell, page 186: