[Of uncertain origin: app. orig. dialectal, and sometimes spelt tuffy, toughy, as if named from its toughness; but the earlier form is the northern TAFFY, q.v.] A sweetmeat made from sugar or treacle, butter, and sometimes a little flour, boiled together; often mixed with bruised nuts, as almond or walnut toffee.
a. 1825. Forby, Voc. E. Anglia, Toughy, a coarse sweetmeat, composed of brown sugar and treacle; named from its toughness, though perhaps it should be spelled tuffy, and considered as another form of taffy, described in Wilbraham’s Cheshire Dialect [1817] as compounded of the same ingredients.
1825. Mrs. Cameron, Seeds Greediness, in Houlston Tracts, I. No. 22. 2. Some shining sticky stuff, which in some countries children call tuffy.
1828. Craven Gloss, s.v., ‘To join for toffy,’ to club for making toffy, a custom still very frequent amongst young persons.
1862. Dickens, Lett., 28 Jan. I am going to bring the boys some toffee.
1877. Black, Green Past., ii. Is it sixpence you want to buy toffy with?
b. attrib. and Comb.
1857. Hughes, Tom Brown, I. iii. It being only a step to the toffy shop.
1896. Westm. Gaz., 30 May, 2/1. The effect … that a toffee drop has on a churchwarden when he finds it in the bag.
