Pronunciations (5)
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/ɹʌf/
Pronunciation notes
- Received-Pronunciation
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/ɹəf/
Pronunciation notes
- General-American
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/ɹɐf/
Pronunciation notes
- Australia
- New-Zealand
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/ɹʊf/
Pronunciation notes
- Northern-England
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/ɾʌf/
Pronunciation notes
- Scotland
- Wales
Noun
A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1560s–1620s).
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You a Captaine? you ſlaue, for what? for tearing a poore Whores Ruffe in a Bawdy-houſe? Hee a Captaine? hang him Rogue, hee liues vpon mouldie ſtew'd-Pruines, and dry'de Cakes.
"Just look here! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and the ruff!"
More examples (1)
"When we first forgathered, I was sitting on the floor with a chair round my neck." "Like an Elizabethan ruff, as worn by Thomas Botway." "Otway," I said stiffly.
Anything formed with plaits or flutings like a frill.
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Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flow'r; / Suckled, and chear'd, with air, and ſun, and ſhow'r; / Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I ſpread, / Bright with the gilded button tipt its head; […]
Senses relating to animals. A gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of species Calidris pugnax (syn. Philomachus pugnax), of Eurasia; specifically, a male of the species which develops a distinctive ruff of feathers and ear tufts during mating season (the female is called a reeve).
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A reeve shows her readiness to copulate by crouching in a particular residence. In a crowded lek she selects an individual ruff by turning towards him while still crouching. Some ruffs are thus chosen frequently while others are never selected. Ruff and reeve only copulate after she has crouched and has sometimes nibbled the feathers at the back of the ruff’s head.
During late spring and early summer it becomes difficult to detect Ruffs in their breeding habitat. The males no longer visit the leks, and most have left the area. Some of the females may still be sitting on their eggs, invisible to casual passers-by.
Senses relating to animals. A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers on or around the neck of a bird.
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I ſhall call this bird the painted vulture. […] the head and neck bare of feathers nearly down to the ſtomach, when the feathers begin to cover the ſkin, and ſoon become long and of a ſoft texture, forming a ruff or tippet, in which the bird by contracting his neck can hide that as well as his head: […]
In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract.
Senses relating to animals. A collar of lengthened or distinctively coloured fur on or around the neck of an animal.
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The Afghan urial, which is smaller than the Transcaspian urial, is found in the mountains near Iran's eastern frontier, and is the wild sheep of Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Its ruff is black sprinkled with white hairs and its bib is white.
The creature coming toward me went instantly still. On the other side of the fire, one of them jerked upright and popped its ruff as wide as it would go. The other lunged to the side of the second and clamped one clawed hand around its muzzle.
A collar on a shaft or other piece to prevent endwise motion.
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The stroke of the cut-off valves is very short, and the ruffs on the parts, g, g, regulate its length.
This plate has a slot in it lengthwise to admit of its being shifted a sixth part of the circumference of the ruff,[…].
An exhibition of haughtiness or pride.
Usage- Obsolete
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Nay, how many Emperours and Princes, that in the Ruff of all their Glory have been taken down from the Head of a Conquering Army, to the Wheel of the Victor's Chariot?
Tumultuous or wanton conduct or procedure.
Usage- Obsolete
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Thou must not pill and poll thy tenant, that thou mayest have, as they say, Unde, and that thy never enough, to ruffle it out in a riotous ruff, and a prodigal, dissolute, and licentious living.
Verb
To shape (fabric, etc.) into a ruff; to adorn (a garment, etc.) with a ruff.
Usage- Transitive
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The Ladies too were carp’d at, and their Dreſs, / He wants ’em all ruff’d up like good Queen Beſs!
Of a falcon, hawk, etc.: to hit (the prey) without fixing or grabbing hold of it.
Usage- Transitive
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Instantly the keen-eyed hawk "stooped," or descended, with a rushing swoop, and struck one of the birds with her claws, but without killing it, which is called "rifling," or "ruffing" it.
To ruffle; to disorder.
Usage- Rare
- Transitive
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Thenceforth the fether in her lofty creſt, / Ruffed of loue, gan lowly to auaile, / And her prowd portaunce, and her princely geſt, / VVith which ſhe earſt tryumphed, now did quaile: […]
To return to the thatching: Straw is not so durable as one could wish; besides, in very high winds, it is liable, if not reeded, to be ruffed a good deal; and the reeding, which is almost like counting the straws one by one, is expensive.
I left my canoe below the fish lay, casting upward, so if I could hook a fish from shore I could lead him down without danger of ruffing the pool.
Of a bird: to ruffle its feathers.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
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"Scat," the crow said. I ignored him. He ruffed up his feathers, doubling his size.
To boast, to brag.
Usage- Obsolete
- Transitive
To speak in a loud and domineering manner; to bluster, to swagger.
Usage- Intransitive
- Obsolete
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[…] Mr Gillies ruffed and screamed out so loud in approbation, that he fell from his chair, and brought an American gentleman down with him.
Noun
A fish of species Arripis georgianus, found in cool waters off the southern coast of Australia
- Synonyms
- Australian herringtommy ruff
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In the same genus there is another species which makes better eating. This is A[rripis] georgianus, popularly known as the ruff or tommy ruff (again, nothing to do with anything bearing that name in the Old World), but now officially called 'Australian herring' (another aberration). [...] The ruff, on the other hand, although a smaller fish, makes good eating; its flesh is tender and tasty.
A bottom-dwelling carnivorous fish of the family Sparidae found in temperate and tropical waters; a porgy or sea bream.
Usage- Obsolete
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A Ruff, or Sea-bream. Melanurus.
Verb
To play a trump card to a trick when unable to follow suit (that is, when unable to play a card of the same suit as the previous or leading card).
Usage- Transitive or intransitive
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Zia [Mahmood] ruffed the club return and then played the ace of hearts and a heart, leaving declarer with another spade loser for two down.
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The declarer may not have fear of losing control on trumps, because even after ruffing in one hand, the other hand will have sufficient length to draw the trumps. A 4-4 fit of trumps is considered to be the best and most convenient for the declarer. […] He can easily make 5 or 6 or even 7 tricks in trumps by way of ruffing once, twice or thrice in one hand.
Especially in the form ruff out: to defeat (a card, etc.) by ruffing, thus establishing the master card in the suit led.
Usage- Transitive
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Then I played on diamonds, to ruff out the suit – but East had four diamonds and West none, so I had annoyingly to lose a trick to East's ♣K in the end.
It never ceases to amaze me how many times people get in trouble by failing to first ruff out their sure losers.
Noun
An instance of ruffing, or an opportunity to ruff, when unable to follow suit.
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Take, for example, the axiom "Never give declarer a ruff-and-sluff."
A game similar to whist and its predecessor.
Usage- Obsolete
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[W]hat ſhall wee haue a game at Trumpe or Ruffe to driue away the time, how ſay you?
Noun
A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruffle.
Usage- often
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I also used quite a few of the flat-fingered kind of ruff (as used before on the doumbek in the baladi section) to embellish some notes.
Verb
To beat a ruff or ruffle, as on a drum.
Usage- often
- Transitive
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[A] wooden leg and an empty coat sleeve, and fourteen poor pennies a-day, are all that I have got by allowing myself to be seduced by the cursed din of a Scotchman's bagpipe. I was once a good yeoman, in Kent, and in an evil hour went to the fair at Maidstone. The drum ruffed, and the pipe screamed in the market-place, and away I went to see what was to happen. […] I fairly forgot myself, and scarcely ever knew where I was or what I was doing, till I found myself on board a ship, and saw the olive hills and vineyards of Spain, […]
Of a drum, etc.: to have a ruff or ruffle beaten on it.
Usage- Intransitive
- often
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If anything could have kept me awake, this cracked drum would; and, in truth, I had my fears, when, on entering my room, I heard my hero ruffing it away immediately in front of the window; but they were groundless apprehensions, though his efforts were varied and unceasing, for I undressed to the tune of the "Grenadiers' March," stepped into bed to the "Reveille," and dropped fast asleep to the first part of "Yankee Doodle!"
Interjection
The bark of a dog; arf, woof.
Usage- often
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"Ruff, ruff!" Around the corner, a little light brown, short-haired dog came running. On seeing the little brown terrier, Annie and Marie looked at one another. Letting out a moan, Annie said, "Oh no, it's JB! I wish Joyce would take him to dog school and have him taught some manners."
Noun
an external body part consisting of feathers or hair about the neck of a bird or other animal
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- Broader terms
a high tight collar
common Eurasian sandpiper; the male has an erectile neck ruff in breeding season
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- Broader terms
(card games) the act of taking a trick with a trump when unable to follow suit
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Verb
play a trump
- Synonyms