ruff

• WordNet 3.6
  • v ruff play a trump
  • n ruff (card games) the act of taking a trick with a trump when unable to follow suit
  • n ruff common Eurasian sandpiper; the male has an erectile neck ruff in breeding season
  • n ruff a high tight collar
  • n ruff an external body part consisting of feathers or hair about the neck of a bird or other animal
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• • Ruff (Mach) A collar on a shaft ot other piece to prevent endwise motion. See Illust. of Collar.
  • n Ruff (Card Playing) A game similar to whist, and the predecessor of it.
  • Ruff (Zoöl) A limicoline bird of Europe and Asia (Pavoncella pugnax, syn. Philomachus pugnax) allied to the sandpipers. The males during the breeding season have a large ruff of erectile feathers, variable in their colors, on the neck, and yellowish naked tubercles on the face. They are polygamous, and are noted for their pugnacity in the breeding season. The female is called reeve, or rheeve.
  • Ruff (Mil) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, not so loud as a roll; a ruffle.
  • Ruff A muslin or linen collar plaited, crimped, or fluted, worn formerly by both sexes, now only by women and children. "Here to-morrow with his best ruff on.""His gravity is much lessened since the late proclamation came out against ruffs ; . . . they were come to that height of excess herein, that twenty shillings were used to be paid for starching of a ruff ."
  • Ruff (Zoöl) A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers round, or on, the neck of a bird.
  • n Ruff (Zoöl) A small freshwater European perch (Acerina vulgaris); -- called also pope blacktail, and stone perch, or striped perch.
  • Ruff (Zoöl) A variety of the domestic pigeon, having a ruff of its neck.
  • Ruff An exhibition of pride or haughtiness. "How many princes . . . 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!"
  • Ruff Something formed with plaits or flutings, like the collar of this name. "I reared this flower; . . . Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread."
  • Ruff (Mil) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
  • Ruff (Hawking) To hit, as the prey, without fixing it.
  • Ruff (Card Playing) To play a trump card at bridge; as, he ruffed his partner's ace.
  • Ruff To ruffle; to disorder.
  • v. i. & t Ruff (Card Playing) To trump.
  • Ruff Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct. "To ruffle it out in a riotous ruff ."
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• • n ruff A projecting band or frill, plaited or bristling, especially one worn around the neck. In the sixteenth century ruffs of muslin or lawn, often edged with lace, plaited or goffered, and stiffly starched, were worn by both men and women, some of them very broad, projecting six inches or more in all directions; narrower ruffs of similar material have formed a part of the costume of women at different epochs, down to the present day.
  • n ruff Something resembling a ruff in form or position. Specifically— In ornithology, a packet, collar, or other set of lengthened, loosened, peculiarly colored, or otherwise distinguished feathers on the neck of a bird, as the condor, the ruff, certain grebes and grouse, etc. Also called ruffle.
  • n ruff The loose top of the boot worn in the seventeenth century turned over and made somewhat ornamental: same as boot-top, 2 . Sometimes the top was of a different leather from the rest of the boot. Spanish leather is especially mentioned, and the edge was sometimes ornamented with gold lace or similar passement.
  • n ruff In machinery, an annular ridge formed on a shaft or other piece, commonly at a journal, to prevent motion endwise. Thus, in the cut, a, a are ruffs limiting the length of the journal b, to which the pillows or brasses are exactly fitted, so that the shaft is prevented from moving on end. Ruffs sometimes consist of separate rings fixed in the positions intended by set-screws, etc. They are then called loose ruffs.
  • n ruff Figuratively, that which is outspread or made public; an open display; a public exhibition, generally marked by pride or vanity.
  • n ruff A breed of domestic pigeons; a kind of Jacobin having a ruff.
  • ruff To plait, pucker, or wrinkle; draw up in plaits or folds.
  • ruff To ruffle; disorder.
  • ruff In falconry, to hit without trussing.
  • ruff To applaud by making a noise with hands or feet. [Scotch.]
  • n ruff The bird Pavoncella or Machetes pugnax (the female of which is called a reeve), a kind of sandpiper belonging to the family Scolopacidæ, having in breeding-plumage an enormous frill or ruff of feathers of peculiar texture on the neck, and noted for its pugnacity. It is widely distributed in the Old World, and occurs as a straggler in America. The length is about 12 inches. Besides the curious ruff, the bird has at the same season a pair of ear-tufts and the face studded with fleshy tubercles. The general plumage is much variegated, and the feathers of the ruff sport in several colors and endlessly varied patterns. When these feathers are erected in fighting, they form a sort of shield or buckler. Also called combatant and fighting sandpiper.
  • n ruff Accrina or Gymnocephalus cernua, a fish of the family Percidæ, distinguished by the muciferous channels of the head, the villiform teeth of the jaws, and the connected dorsal fins. It is a freshwater fish of Europe, living in families or schools, and mostly frequenting rather deep and cold waters. In habits and food it much resembles the common perch.
  • n ruff An old game at cards, the predecessor of whist.
  • n ruff In card-playing, the act of trumping when the player has no cards of the suit led.
  • ruff In card-playing, to trump when holding none of the suit led.
  • ruff Also, erroneously, rough.
  • ruff Same as rough.
  • n ruff A state of roughness; ruggedness; hence, rude or riotous procedure or conduct.
  • ruff To heckle (flax) on a coarse heckle called a ruffer.
  • ruff In hat-manuf., to nap.
  • n ruff An obsolete form of rough.
  • n ruff A low vibrating beat of a drum; a ruffie. See ruffle.
  • n ruff A dialectal form of roof.
  • n ruff A large integumental fold surrounding the base of the foot of Haliotis, the ear-shell.
  • n ruff A Victorian fish, Arripis georgianus, of the family Percidæ. A. salar is the Australian fish called salmon or salmon-trout. See salmon, 3 .
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• • n Ruff ruf an ornament of frills formerly worn round the neck: anything plaited: a bird belonging to the sandpiper sub-family of the Snipe family, the male with an erectile ruff during the breeding season—fem. Reeve: a band of long hair growing round the neck of some dogs: :
  • v.t Ruff to pucker: to draw up in folds: to ruffle, disorder: in falconry, to hit without trussing:
  • n Ruff ruf an old game at cards: the act of trumping when the player has no cards of the suit left
  • v.t Ruff to trump in this way
  • n Ruff ruf ruggedness
  • v.t Ruff to heckle flax on a coarse heckle: to nap hats
  • adv Ruff helter-skelter, pell-mell
  • n Ruff ruf a low vibrating beat of a drum.
  • n Ruff ruf a small fresh-water fish of the Perch family, abundant in England, about six inches long, with only one dorsal fin
  • Ruff Also Pope
  • n Ruff ruf (mach.) an annular ridge formed on a shaft to prevent motion endwise: a breed of domestic pigeons
  • n Ruff ruf (obs.) a display
  • v.t Ruff (Scot.) to applaud by making noise with hands or feet
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