What is the difference between toff and swell?
toff | swell | Synonyms |
(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
To become bigger, especially due to being engorged.
* Shakespeare
To cause to become bigger.
* Atterbury
* {{quote-book, year=1905, author=
, title=
, chapter=2 * 2013 June 18, (Simon Romero), "
To grow gradually in force or loudness.
To raise to arrogance; to puff up; to inflate.
To be raised to arrogance.
* Shakespeare
* Sir Walter Scott
To be elated; to rise arrogantly.
* Dryden
To be turgid, bombastic, or extravagant.
To protuberate; to bulge out.
The act of swelling.
Increase of power in style, or of rhetorical force.
* Landor:
A long series of ocean waves, generally produced by wind, and lasting after the wind has ceased.
* 1883 , , Treasure Island , ch. 24:
(music) A gradual crescendo followed by diminuendo.
* , chapter=5
, title= (music) A device for controlling the volume of a pipe organ.
(music) A division in a pipe organ, usually the largest enclosed division.
A hillock or similar raised area of terrain.
* 1909 , , The Last of the Chiefs , ch. 2:
(informal) A person who is dressed in a fancy or elegant manner.
* , "The Kickleburys on the Rhine" in The Christmas Books of Mr. M. A. Titmarsh :
* 1887 , , The Cash Boy , ch. 9:
(informal) A person of high social standing; an important person.
* 1864 , , The Small House at Allington , ch. 2:
* 1906 , , The Trespasser , ch. 8:
Excellent.
* 2012 , (Ariel Levy), "The Space In Between", The New Yorker , 10 Sep 2012:
Swell is a synonym of toff.
As nouns the difference between toff and swell
is that toff is an elegantly dressed person while swell is the act of swelling.As a verb swell is
to become bigger, especially due to being engorged.As an adjective swell is
excellent.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.
Usage notes
Commonly used in the UK with a negative connotation.Antonyms
* plebSee also
* la-di-daReferences
*swell
English
Verb
- Monarchs to behold the swelling scene!
- Rains and dissolving snow swell the rivers in spring.
- It is low ebb with his accuser when such peccadilloes are put to swell the charge.
citation, passage=For this scene, a large number of supers are engaged, and in order to further swell the crowd, practically all the available stage hands have to ‘walk on’ dressed in various coloured dominoes, and all wearing masks.}}
Protests Widen as Brazilians Chide Leaders," New York Times (retrieved 21 June 2013):
- After a harsh police crackdown last week fueled anger and swelled protests, President Dilma Rousseff, a former guerrilla who was imprisoned under the dictatorship and has now become the target of pointed criticism herself, tried to appease dissenters by embracing their cause on Tuesday.
- The organ music swelled .
- to be swelled with pride or haughtiness
- Here he comes, swelling like a turkey cock.
- You swell at the tartan, as the bull is said to do at scarlet.
- Your equal mind yet swells not into state.
- swelling''' words; a '''swelling style
- A cask swells in the middle.
Noun
(en noun)- the swell and subsidence of his periods
- There was a great, smooth swell upon the sea.
The Mirror and the Lamp, passage=He was thinking; but the glory of the song, the swell from the great organ, the clustered lights, […], the height and vastness of this noble fane, its antiquity and its strength—all these things seemed to have their part as causes of the thrilling emotion that accompanied his thoughts.}}
- Off on the crest of a swell a moving figure was seen now and then. "Antelope," said the hunters.
- It costs him no more to wear all his ornaments about his distinguished person than to leave them at home. If you can be a swell at a cheap rate, why not?
- He was dressed in a flashy style, not unlike what is popularly denominated a swell .
- "I am not in Mr Crosbie's confidence. He is in the General Committee Office, I know; and, I believe, has pretty nearly the management of the whole of it." . . .
- "I'll tell you what he is, Bell; Mr Crosbie is a swell'." And Lilian Dale was right; Mr Crosbie was a ' swell .
- You buy a lot of Indian or halfbreed loafers with beaver-skins and rum, go to the Mount of the Burning Arrows, and these fellows dance round you and call you one of the lost race, the Mighty Men of the Kimash Hills. And they'll do that while the rum lasts. Meanwhile you get to think yourself a devil of a swell —you and the gods!
Synonyms
* (person dressed in a fancy or elegant manner) dandy, dude, toff * (person of high social standing) toffDerived terms
* ground swell, groundswell * upswell * wind swellAdjective
(en-adj)- Orgasms are swell , but they are not the remedy to every injustice.