▪ I. toft1
(tɒft)
Also 5–7 tofte, (7 tuft), 8–9 Sc. dial. taft.
[Late OE. toft, a. ON. topt, tupt, later toft, tuft (Norw. toft, tuft, tyft ‘ground attached to a house’ (Aasen), early and dial. Swed. toft, Da. toft, tofte), existing beside and commonly identified with ON. tomt, OSwed. tompt (Vigfusson), Norw. tomt (Aasen), Swed. tomt, Da. tomt ‘toft’; both forms:—OTeut. *tumft-, *tumf(e)t-, with which cf. Gr. δά-πεδον:—*dm-pedo-m, a level surface, lit. ‘a site for building’.]
1. Originally, a homestead, the site of a house and its out-buildings; a house site. Often in the expression toft and croft, denoting the whole holding, consisting of the homestead and attached piece of arable land.
| 1001 in Kemble Cod. Dipl. III. 317 Healf þæt land æt Suðham, innur and uttur, on tofte and on crofte. a 1100 in Sax. Leechd. III. 286 An ic aᵹnian wille to aᵹenre ahte ðæt ðæt ic hæbbe, & næfre ðæt yntan, ne plot ne ploh, ne turf ne toft, ne furh ne fotmæl, ne land ne læse, ne fersc ne mersc, ne ruh ne rum. 12.. Charter of Siflæd (orig. a 1000) in Birch Cart. Sax. III. 217 And ic [an] mine landsethlen here toftes to owen aihte and alle mine men fre. 1290 Rolls of Parlt. I. 62/1 Johanna..petit dotem..de viii to Toftis et viii to Bavatis terre. 1348 Ibid. II. 205/1 Un toft & cink acres de terre. 14.. Customs of Malton in Surtees Misc. (1888) 63 For every tofte þ{supt} is nott beldydd j d. 1473 Rental Bk. Cupar-Angus (1879) I. 165 Ilke man sal kepe his pairt of his malyn and his toft that his nichtbur be nocht injuryt. 1592 West Symbol. ii. Fines §55 A Toft is the place wherein a mesuage hath stand. 1607 Norden Surv. Dial. v. 207, I haue..obserued..that many croftes, toftes, pightes, pingles, and other small quillits of land, about farme houses, and Tenements, are suffred to lie together idle. 1683 Lond. Gaz. No. 1800/4 A Tuft of Ground..by Thames-Street, will be disposed of by Lease for 61 years, by the Committee for Letting the City Lands. 1760 Ld. Mansfield in Burrow's Rep. (1766) II. 1064 The Owner of a House may, if he pleases, pull it quite down, and convert it into a Toft. 1790 A. Wilson To Eben. Picken Poet. Wks. (1846) 107 And scores o' times, in kintra tafts, They've gart the fouk maist rive their chafts. 1809 Bawdwen Domesday Bk. 614 But the riding say that he has only 9½ acres and one toft, the soke of which belongs to the King's Manor of Gayton. 1818 Hallam Mid. Ages ix. i. (1819) III. 366 A house with its stables and farm-buildings, surrounded by a hedge or inclosure, was called a court, or..a curtilage; the toft or homestead of a more genuine English dialect. 1870 Lady Verney Lettice Lisle xiii. 146, I might ha' been a comfortable man by this; and now I'm like to have neither toft nor croft. 1955 Times 19 Aug. 8/5 Even a layman, with guidance, can recognize the signs pointing to medieval occupation: the hollow said to be the main street; the adjoining humps of the house enclosures, each with its ‘toft’ (garden) and croft, or small holding. 1965 Auden About House (1966) 17 A toft-and-croft Where I needn't, ever, be at home to Those I am not at home with. |
2. Apparently including the croft, or applied to a field or piece of land larger than the site of a house.
| c 1440 Promp. Parv. 459/1 Toft, campus. c 1450 Godstow Reg. 315, iij. mesis liyng to-gedir..with the toftis liyng therto..; also with two toftis I-closed in, of the which one strecchith hit-self in lengthe of the gardeyn of the seid Symond, and another in lengthe of the gardeyn of the said abbesse and Couent, in þe forsaid towne of karsynton. 1549 Reg. Mag. Sig. Scot. 82/2 Terras de Drumfyne nuncupatas the Toftis of Drumfyne. 1598 Kitchin Courts Leet (1675) 151 One Tenement with a Toft adjoining. 1831 Landor Fra Rupert ii. i, Though the parks and groves and tofts around,..Open would be to her. |
3. An eminence, knoll, or hillock in a flat region; esp. one suitable for the site of a house or tower. Cf. quot. 1863. Now local.
| 1362 Langl. P. Pl. A. Prol. 14, I sauh a Tour on A Toft triȝely I-maket; A Deop Dale bi-neoþe. 1387 Trevisa Higden (Rolls) VII. 359 In þe myddel of þat playn was a litel toft as it were an hille [colliculus turgescebat]. 1558 T. Phaer æ neid vii. U iv, They, from their Fescen hilles, and from Faliscus equall toftes. 1863 Baring-Gould Iceland xxii. 368 A farm named Tratharholt, crowning a toft which rises out of green meads and almost impossible swamps. 1887 Fenn Dick o' Fens (1888) 23 Right up on a high toft with the river on one side and the fens for miles on the other. |
† 4. ‘A small grove of trees’ (E.D.D.). dial. (or ? error in Kersey's Phillips.) Obs.
| 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Toft..also a Grove of Trees. 1726 Dict. Rust. (ed. 3), Toft, a Grove of trees. |
5. attrib. and Comb., as toft field, toftstead; toftman, the owner or occupier of a toft.
| 1763 Museum Rust. I. 35 The soil of your upper *toft field. 1826 Scott Jrnl. 16 Mar., I shall have on the toft field a gallant show of extensive woodland. |
| 12.. Prior. Lewens. 18 (Cowell's Interpr. 1684) *Toftmanni similiter operabantur. 1706 Phillips (ed. Kersey), Toft-man, the Owner of a Toft. |
| 1524 Test. Ebor. (Surtees) V. 180 An other *toftstede which I haue in Lownd. 1773 Burstwick Inclos. Act 6 Gardens, orchards, toftsteads, crofts. 1839 Stonehouse Axholme 35 To the owners of ancient messuages, cottages, tofts, and toftsteads. |
▪ II. toft
variant of tought, obs. form of taut a.