In 2012 Scripps chemist William Gerwick isolated a molecule called carmaphycin B from a tuft of cyanobacteria growing on a boat's mooring line in a Curaçao harbor. Stephanie Stone, Scientific American, 23 July 2022 Not an albino, Big Medicine had a mostly white coat with a tuft of brown that sometimes appeared near his horns. From Usa Today Network And Wire Reports, USA TODAY, 13 July 2022 The Russians have a word for Ukrainians, which is khokhol, sort of slightly disdain for them, which is that tuft of hair on the Cossack’s head. Isaac Chotiner, The New Yorker, 15 Mar. 2022 Read full article At 6-foot-1, with a full tuft of hair and a scraggly beard, Mr. Wall towered over the wiry, diminutive Lee, who, in the film, nevertheless overpowers his adversary by kicking him to the ground and crushing his chest. Clay Risen, BostonGlobe.com, 12 Feb. 2022 At 6-foot-1, with a full tuft of hair and a scraggly beard, Mr. Wall towered over the wiry, diminutive Mr. Lee, who, in the film, nevertheless overpowers his adversary by kicking him to the ground and crushing his chest.New York Times, 11 Feb. 2022 Additionally, Colegrove noted and photographed each tuft of pale fur, a dollop of cream on an otherwise coffee and cinnamon pelt. Elizabeth Miller, Smithsonian Magazine, 28 Mar. 2022 Abbas is forty-seven, with droopy eyes, a barely existent tuft of gray hair, and a plump face, set into a determinedly benign smile. Ruth Margalit, The New Yorker, 25 Oct. 2021 After a moment, the enormous head dropped to forage through the sparse grass, its tail with the tuft of hair at the end slapping at swarming flies. Steve Meyer, Anchorage Daily News, 28 Nov. 2021
Verb
These included residential species like Carolina wrens and tufted titmice, as well as indigo buntings, hooded warblers, and other birds that spend their winters in Central America, the Caribbean, and South America. Kate Baggaley, Popular Science, 27 May 2020 The mattresses are hand-tufted and made in California. Mariana Zapata, NBC News, 8 May 2020 Seriously, how many sofas have diamond-tufted shearling?Los Angeles Times, 8 Apr. 2020 Other animals that experienced mass die-offs include sea lions, tufted puffins, and baleen whales. Jessie Yeung, CNN, 16 Jan. 2020 For a split second, the elusive predator was illuminated in my headlights and seemed frozen in mid-stride, running across a warm desert night, its long legs, tufted ears, and beautiful reddish-brown fur with black spots forever etched in my memory. Don Lyman, BostonGlobe.com, 29 Jan. 2020 One of these was tufted, like a tiny feather duster. Rachel Fritts, Ars Technica, 15 Jan. 2020 Males grow to about 13 pounds in captivity and the oldest captive tufted capuchin lived to be 45-years-old, according to the New England Primate Conservatory. David Williams, CNN, 1 Nov. 2019 And the sideboard table is metal, but tufted for interest. Nikhita Mahtani, House Beautiful, 17 May 2019 See More
Word History
Etymology
Noun
Middle English, modification of Middle French touffe, probably of Germanic origin; akin to Old High German zopf tip — more at top entry 1