Definitions
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.
- noun A homestead.
- noun A hillock.
from The Century Dictionary.
- noun A grove of trees.
- noun A hillock; a slightly elevated and exposed site; open ground.
- noun A messuage; a house and homestead. Also
toftstead . - noun In English common law:
- noun A messuage the tenant of which is entitled by virtue of it to rights of common in other land in the parish or district.
- noun A piece of ground on which a messuage formerly stood, and which, though the messuage be gone to decay, is still called by a name indicating something more than mere land.
from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.
- noun obsolete A knoll or hill.
- noun Prov. Eng. A grove of trees; also, a plain.
- noun (O. Eng. Law) A place where a messuage has once stood; the site of a burnt or decayed house.
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.
- noun a
homestead , especially one on ahill
Etymologies
from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition
from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License
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Examples
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This isn't the case there is at least one toft that I can think of Toft Hill in County Durham.
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In Northumberland, Durham, Cumberland, Westmoreland and Lancashire thorpe is comparatively rare, while toft is not found at all.
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When he'd made me landless he offered to leave me the toft if I'd bind myself to turn over all my work to him for my keep.
The Hermit of Eyton Forest Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1987
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When he'd made me landless he offered to leave me the toft if I'd bind myself to turn over all my work to him for my keep.
The Hermit of Eyton Forest Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1987
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Well, he had known them crop up in cottage no less than in castle, in croft and toft, and among the soil-bound villein families, too.
The Virgin In The Ice Peters, Ellis, 1913-1995 1982
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Beyond the pond, where ducks gossiped and plunged, he saw the stacked wood seasoning, and came at once to the toft, a large undercroft well stocked with tools and materials, a room and a garret above, and in the yard before the house, a wagon standing, propped short of one wheel.
The Leper of Saint Giles Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1981
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Beyond the pond, where ducks gossiped and plunged, he saw the stacked wood seasoning, and came at once to the toft, a large undercroft well stocked with tools and materials, a room and a garret above, and in the yard before the house, a wagon standing, propped short of one wheel.
The Leper of Saint Giles Peters, Ellis, 1913- 1981
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Kirkton of St Vigeans, with the muir-fauld and the toft of St Vigeans, and a piece of common land lying to the south of the church.
The Scottish Reformation Its Epochs, Episodes, Leaders, and Distinctive Characteristics Alexander F. Mitchell
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And it's a Lowes toft, too, the real thing -- the genuine, true soft paste!
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When morning was, there were horns sounding from the tower on the toft, and all men hastening in their war-gear to the topmost of the other toft, the bare one, whereon was no building; for thereon was ever the mote-stead of these woodmen.
qms commented on the word toft
The sound on the dark wind was soft,
As though the Grim Reaper had coughed
To remind us politely
He passes by nightly
And pauses to wait by each toft.
January 20, 2015