vbl. sb. [f. TUFT v. + -ING1.] The action of the verb TUFT, or the result of this.
1. Adornment with a tuft or tufts.
1554–5. in Feuillerat, Revels Q. Mary (1914), 175. vj yardes of red gold sarcenet … for the tuftinge of the wemens hed-peces. Ibid. (1558), Q. Eliz. (1908), 24. Spente in pullinges oute, tuftinges, tyringes [etc.].
b. concr. Tufts collectively; a mass of tufts.
1791. Gilpin, Forest Scenery, I. 243. Sun-shine striking a wood … and reposing on the tuftings of a clump.
1894. R. Bridges, Shorter Poems, V. xvi. (1912), 317. The fir-trees … wave aloft … their blue-green tuftings.
2. Stag-hunting. The action of beating a covert to dislodge the deer. Also attrib.
1862. C. P. Collyns, Chase Wild Red Deer, iv. 82. What I have said will sufficiently indicate what the object of tufting is.
1883. Standard, 10 Aug., 2/1. Tufting is not a popular form of passing the time on an opening day.
1884. Jefferies, Red Deer, vii. 118. The hounds … are called the ‘tufters’;… drawing the cover is called ‘tufting.’
3. Comb. Tufting-button, one of the buttons used in ‘tufting’ a cushion, etc. (see TUFT v. 1 b).
1884. Forney, Car-Builder’s Dict. (Cent. Dict.).
Tufting, ppl. a. [f. as prec. + -ING2.] That tufts: see the vb.
1598. [see TUFT v. 2].
