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The Young Lions vocabulary

5 British vocabulary words

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britain

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toff: notes: {n}

synonyms: posho ???

tags: [britain]

► definition

Definition:

1. (obsolete) An elegantly dressed person.
2. (Britain, derogatory) A person of the upper class, or with pretensions to it, who usually communicates an air of superiority.

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► uses

Uses:

Blackadder: [...] Basically, it's a right old mess. toffs at the top, plebs at the bottom, and me in the middle making a fat pile of cash out of both of them.

BBC. Blackadder, season 2: Dish and Dishonesty

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He had taken out American citizenship papers when the war began in 1939, but otherwise he seemed exactly the same handsome, talented young toff, via Pall Mall out of the Bristol slums, who had got off the boat in 1934.

Irwin Shaw. The Young Lions, p.183 (1948)

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He was dressed like a toff, and he had a black beard, cut square at the end, and a pale face.

Arthur Conan Doyle. Sherlock Holmes: The Hound of the Baskervilles (1902)