tuft

tuft
    n 1: a bunch of hair or feathers or growing grass [syn: {tuft},
         {tussock}]
    2: a bunch of feathers or hair
    

Tuft \Tuft\, v. t. [imp. & p. p. {Tufted}; p. pr. & vb. n.
   {Tufting}.]
   1. To separate into tufts.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. To adorn with tufts or with a tuft. --Thomson.
      [1913 Webster]
    

Tuft \Tuft\, v. i.
   To grow in, or form, a tuft or tufts.
   [1913 Webster]
    

Tuft \Tuft\, n. [Prov. E. tuff, F. touffe; of German origin; cf.
   G. zopf a weft of hair, pigtail, top of a tree. See {Top}
   summit.]
   1. A collection of small, flexible, or soft things in a knot
      or bunch; a waving or bending and spreading cluster; as, a
      tuft of flowers or feathers.
      [1913 Webster]

   2. A cluster; a clump; as, a tuft of plants.
      [1913 Webster]

            Under a tuft of shade.                --Milton.
      [1913 Webster]

            Green lake, and cedar fuft, and spicy glade.
                                                  --Keble.
      [1913 Webster]

   3. A nobleman, or person of quality, especially in the
      English universities; -- so called from the tuft, or gold
      tassel, on the cap worn by them. [Cant, Eng.]
      [1913 Webster]

            Several young tufts, and others of the faster men.
                                                  --T. Hughes.
      [1913 Webster]
    

53 Moby Thesaurus words for "tuft":
      Vandyke, bang, bangs, batch, beard, beaver, bristles, bunch, clump,
      cluster, copse, crest, crop, down, feather, fetlock, fleck, flock,
      forelock, fringe, goatee, group, grouping, groupment, grove,
      growth, hackle, hassock, imperial, knot, lot, mess, panache,
      peach fuzz, pinion, plantation, planting, plume, plumule, quiff,
      quill, scapular, shock, side whiskers, slew, stand, stook, stubble,
      thicket, topknot, tussock, whiskers, wisp