a person who is, or appears to be, of a superior social status or well-to-do. From 'tuft' which, in 1670, was a gold tassel worn by titled undergraduates at Oxford and Cambridge, and, by 1755, was university slang for a person of rank and title and hence down the social scale to 'swell' and 'nob'. In 1865 there was a music hall song entitled 'The Shoreditch Toff' by Arthur Lloyd UK, 1851.

a completely reliable and dependable person AUSTRALIA, 1989