Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary · 1913

Tuft

Tuft , noun

[Prov. English tuff, French touffe; of German origin; compare German 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, English]
Several young tufts, and others of the faster men. — T. Hughes

Tuft , transitive verb

1.
To separate into tufts.
2.
To adorn with tufts or with a tuft. — Thomson

Tuft , intransitive verb

To grow in, or form, a tuft or tufts.