Meaning of toff | Babel Free

Definitions

1. An elegantly dressed person.
   obsolete
2. A person of the upper class or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority.
   Ireland, UK, derogatory

Equivalents

Examples

“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”

“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."”

“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; […]”

“‘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.[…]’”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

“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.”

CEFR level