Doff vs Toff - What's the difference?
doff | toff |
(clothing) to remove or take off, especially of clothing
* Shakespeare
* Emerson
* {{quote-book
, year=1960
, author=
, title=(Jeeves in the Offing)
, section=chapter VII
, passage=She had doffed the shirt and Bermuda-shorts which she had been wearing and was now dressed for her journey home.}}
to remove or tip a hat, as in greeting, salutation or as a mark of respect
to get rid of, to throw off
*1778 , Charles Dibdin, The Perfect Sailor :
*:Thus Death, who kings and tars despatches,
*:For, though his body's under hatches
(reflexive) To strip; to divest; to undress.
* Crashaw
(obsolete) An elegantly dressed person.
(British) A person of the upper class- or high-class-pretence who usually communicates an air of superiority.
* 1972 , New Scientist, Vol. 55, No. 812, "
* 1998 , The Billboard, April 11th issue,
* 2012 , How the Dice Fell , by John Roberts, page 186
As a verb doff
is to remove or take off, especially of clothing.As a noun toff is
an elegantly dressed person.doff
English
Verb
(en verb)- And made us doff our easy robes of peace.
- At night, or in the rain, / He dons a surcoat which he doffs at morn.
- The rustics doffed their hats at the clergy.
- Doff that stupid idea: it would never work.
- In vain Tom's life has doffed ,
- His soul has gone aloft.
- Heaven's King, who doffs himself our flesh to wear.
Antonyms
* (remove or take off clothing)Derived terms
*Synonyms
* (remove clothing) (l)toff
English
Noun
(en noun)A groundling's notebook" by Donald Gould
- 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.
page 34, Paul McCartney's remark on the right margin:
- 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.
- I like to see the toffs' being ' toffs . The women all glammed up]], the blokes in their tails and [[top hat, top 'ats, all braying and flinging their money around. Confirms all my prejudices. Just a reminder of who my enemies are.