Etymology From tuft + -y (suffix meaning ‘having the quality of’ forming adjectives).
1
Having the form of or resembling a tuft (“a bunch of grass, hair, etc., held together at the base”).
There was a bed of nothing but mignonette and another of nothing but pansies—borders of double and single daisies and all kinds of little tufty plants she had never seen before.1918 June, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “Prelude”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, chapter 6, page 32:
Here he stood for a moment looking up and down the narrow road and the heavy snowflakes covered his shoulders and his tufty, ill-kempt hair.1933, Baroness Orczy [i.e., Emma Orczy], chapter XXXIV, in The Way of the Scarlet Pimpernel, New York, N.Y.: G[eorge] P[almer] Putnam’s Sons, published 1934, →OCLC, page 307:
1 more example
In recent years Nelson has grown a mustache, a tufty brown smudge not much wider than his nose.1990, John Updike, chapter I, in Rabbit at Rest, New York, N.Y.: Random House, published 2010, page 14:
2
Covered in or having many tufts.
Witneſs, thou best Anâna, thou the pride / Of vegetable life, beyond whate’er / The poets imaged in the golden age: / Quick let me strip thee of thy tufty coat, / Spread thy ambroſial ſtores, and feaſt with Jove!a. 1749 (date written), James Thomson, “Summer”, in The Seasons, London: […] A[ndrew] Millar, and sold by Thomas Cadell, […], published 1768, →OCLC, page 72, lines 685–689:
In and out of the tufts they went, with their eyes dilating; wishing to be out of harm, if conscience were but satisfied. And of this tufty flaggy ground, pocked with bogs and boglets, one especial nature is that it will not hold impressions.1869, R[ichard] D[oddridge] Blackmore, chapter VII, in Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor. […], volume III, London: Sampson Low, Son, & Marston, […], →OCLC, page 111:
3
Obsolete, Rare Covered with tufts (“small clumps of bushes or trees”).
The Sylvans that about the neighbouring vvoods did dvvell, / Both in the tufty Frith and in the moſſy Fell, / Forſook their gloomy Bovvres, and vvandred farre abroad, / Expeld their quiet fears, and place of their abode, […]1612, Michael Drayton, “The Seuenteenth Song”, in [John Selden], editor, Poly-Olbion. Or A Chorographicall Description of Tracts, Riuers, Mountaines, Forests, and Other Parts of this Renowned Isle of Great Britaine, […], London: […] [Humphrey Lownes] for M[athew] Lownes; I[ohn] Browne; I[ohn] Helme; I[ohn] Busbie, →OCLC, page 265:
4
Growing in tufts.
If you haue ſeene at foot of ſome braue hill, / Tvvo Springs ariſe, and delicately trill, / In gentle chidings through an humble dale, / (VVhere tufty Daizies nod at euery gale) […]1613, William Browne, “The Fifth Song”, in Britannia’s Pastorals. [The First Booke], London: […] Geo[rge] Norton, […], →OCLC, page 122:
Buoyant. That's a tufty. Well, tufted duck, to be formal, but the name always sounds more like tufty duck, and there is something inspiringly matey about a tufty: we are on nickname terms with the bird at first glance.2005, Simon Barnes, “Tufted Duck”, in A Bad Birdwatcher’s Companion … Or A Personal Introduction to Britain’s 50 Most Obvious Birds, London: Short Books, →ISBN, page 101: