Emily Dickinson Lexicon

TUFT, n. [W. twf; Fr. touffe, toupet; Sw. tofs; Sp. tupe, a tuft; tupir, to press together; tupa, satiety.]

1. A collection of small things in a knot or bunch; as, a tuft of flowers; a tuft of feathers; a tuft of grass or hair. A tuft of feathers forms the crest of a bird. Dryden. Addison.
2. A cluster; a clump; as, a tuft of trees; a tuft of olives. Shak.
3. In botany, a head of flowers, each elevated on a partial stalk, and all forming together a dense roundish mass. The word is sometimes applied to other collections, as little bundles of leaves, hairs and the like. Cyc.