Green’s Dictionary of Slang

socially aspirant.

1833		Freeman’s Jrnl 22 May 3/4: The tuft-hunting is a large tribe [...] extending through all political denominations.
1838		Manchester Times 8 Dec. 4/1: The subsciption of ‘Archibald Prentice, farmer’ [...] for twenty-nine copies [...] is passed over in silence by the tuft-hunting biographer!
1843–44		Dickens Martin Chuzzlewit (1995) 287: As ridiculous [...] as the mildest Nimrod among tuft-hunting republicans.
1857		Leeds Times 16 May 4/6: he will carry away with him [...] the good wishes of his political tuft-hunting entertainer.
1865		R.S. Surtees Facey Romford’s Hounds 351: Lady Camilla Snuff [...] wondered who the pushing, tuft-hunting woman had got holf now.
1873		Wrexham Advisor 20 Sept. 8/1: Those Welsh tuft-hunting geese have sped, to cackle round thy quiet bed.
1880		Bulletin (Sydney) 26 June 4/3: Just after Sir Hercules landed, a cruel story [...] was circulated at the ex pense of a well-known tuft-hunting mercantile gentleman.
1887		Dundee Courier 7 Dec. 3: A crowded meeting of hungry place-hunters, and tuft-hunting tradesmen.
1894		Truth (Sydney) 14 Jan. 5/3: His assertion that he was intimately connected with the Royal House of Hapsburg was sufficient for Sydney ‘sassiety’. He was fairly hunted down by the leading tuft-hunting familes.
1895		E. Townsend Chimmie Fadden Explains 165: A sweet little tuft-hunting fool of a woman made a valiant siege for Bob’s attentions.
1903		Manchester Courier 31 Oct. 14/5: Thackeray [...] irritated at the man’s ungraciousness and bearing in mind his tuft-hunting predilictions, quietly responded [etc.].
1912		T.W.H. Crosland The First Stone 14: There was a friend of mine / Gat in my tuft-hunting days.
1924		Aberdeen Jrnl 8 July n.p.: The book has many touches of humour in its pictures of tuft-hunting guests at the hotel.
1999		Guardian G2 12 July 5: The Ponto family [...] starve themselves so their tuft-hunting son can give himself airs.