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Ruff   /rəf/   Listen
noun
Ruff  n.  (Card Playing)
(a)
A game similar to whist, and the predecessor of it.
(b)
The act of trumping, especially when one has no card of the suit led.



Ruff  n.  
1.
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."
2.
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."
3.
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!"
4.
Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct. (Obs.) "To ruffle it out in a riotous ruff."
5.
(Mil.) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, not so loud as a roll; a ruffle.
6.
(Mach.) A collar on a shaft ot other piece to prevent endwise motion.
7.
(Zool.) A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers round, or on, the neck of a bird.
8.
(Zool.)
(a)
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.
(b)
A variety of the domestic pigeon, having a ruff of its neck.



Ruffe, Ruff  n.  (Zool.) A small freshwater European perch (Acerina vulgaris); called also pope, blacktail, and stone perch, or striped perch.



verb
Ruff  v. i. & v. t.  (Card Playing) To trump.



Ruff  v. t.  (past & past part. ruffed; pres. part. ruffing)  
1.
To ruffle; to disorder.
2.
(Mil.) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
3.
(Hawking) To hit, as the prey, without fixing it.
4.
(Card Playing) To play a trump card at bridge; as, he ruffed his partner's ace.






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Ruff" Quotes from Famous Books



... from your gold frame, Between that starched old Bishop and the dame In awe-inspiring ruff. We'll brave their ire And trip a minuet. You will not?—Fie! Those mocking lips half make me wish that I, Her grandson, might have been my ...
— Cap and Gown - A Treasury of College Verse • Selected by Frederic Knowles

... the views and doctrines held by Dr. Gerschovius. This Clara we shall hear more of in our history. She was a year older than Sidonia, intelligent, courageous, and faithful, with a quiet, amiable disposition, and of most pious and Christian demeanour. She wore a high, stiff ruff, out of which peeped forth her head scarcely visible, and a long robe, like a stole, sweeping behind her. She was privately betrothed to her Grace's Master of the Horse, Marcus Bork by name, a cousin of Sidonia's; ...
— Sidonia The Sorceress V1 • William Mienhold

... several years of useful life before him. I need not point out to you that the conditions of the negotiation are now greatly altered. On the one hand, my partners and myself may seem to occupy the position of players who work a double ruff at whist. We are open to the marquis's offers for release, and to yours for his eternal absence from the scene of life and enjoyment. But it is by no means impossible that you may have scruples about outbidding your kinsman, especially as, if you did, you would, ...
— The Disentanglers • Andrew Lang

... Silent was dressed upon that day, according to his usual custom, in very plain fashion. He wore a wide-leaved, loosely shaped hat of dark felt, with a silken cord round the crown,—such as had been worn by the Beggars in the early days of the revolt. A high ruff encircled his neck, from which also depended one of the Beggars' medals, with the motto, 'Fideles au roy jusqu'a la besace,' while a loose surcoat of gray frieze cloth, over a tawny leather doublet, with wide slashed underclothes ...
— A Wanderer in Holland • E. V. Lucas

... went to church with my host. The congregation, including their pastor, wore the costume of the middle ages; it was a most curious and interesting sight. I am never a good hand at describing the details of dress, but I know my impression was that the pastor—wearing a ruff, I think, or something like it—might just have walked out of a picture, such as one knows so well of the old Puritans in Cromwell's time. The dress of the peasants, though unlike the English fashion of any period, had an old-world look. The married women wore white kerchiefs ...
— Round About the Carpathians • Andrew F. Crosse


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