ruff
Language: English
Part of speech: noun
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹʌf/
ipa: /ɹəf/
ipa: /ɹɐf/
ipa: /ɹʊf/
rhymes: -ʌf
homophone: rough
homophone: ruffe
Forms: form: ruffs
Etymology: Clipping of ruffle, or possibly from rough.
Senses: examples: text: 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.
ref: c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The Second Part of Henry the Fourth, containing His Death: And the Coronation of King Henry the Fift”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies: Published According to the True Originall Copies, London: Printed by Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, act II, scene iv, page 83, column 1:
text: "Just look here! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and the ruff!"
ref: 1886, Peter Christen Asbjørnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 309:
text: "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.
ref: 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in Jeeves in the Offing, London: Herbert Jenkins, →OCLC:
glosses: A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1560s–1620s).
examples: text: 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; […]
ref: 1742, [Alexander] Pope, The New Dunciad: [...] With the Illustrations of Scriblerus, and Notes Variorum, 2nd edition, London: Printed for J. H. Hubbard, in the Old-Bailey, →OCLC, pages 24–25, lines 395–398:
glosses: Anything formed with plaits or flutings like a frill.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1986, Desmond Nethersole-Thompson, Maimie Nethersole-Thompson, “New or Returning Waders”, in Waders: Their Breeding, Haunts and Watchers, Calton, Staffordshire: T. & A. D. Poyser, →ISBN; republished as Waders: Their Breeding, Haunts and Watchers (Poyser Monographs), London: T. & A. D. Poyser, 2010, →ISBN, page 323:
text: 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.
ref: 1991, Johan G. van Rhijn, “The Vigilant Mother”, in The Ruff: Individuality in a Gregarious Wading Bird, London: T. & A. D. Poyser, →ISBN; republished as The Ruff: Individuality in a Gregarious Wading Bird (Poyser Monographs), London: T. & A. D. Poyser, 2010, →ISBN, page 111:
glosses: Senses relating to animals.
Philomachus pugnax (syn. Calidris pugnax), a gregarious, medium-sized wading bird 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).
examples: text: 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: […]
ref: 1794, William Bartram, chapter V, in Travels through North and South Carolina, Georgia, East and West Florida, the Cherokee Country, the Extensive Territories of the Muscogulges or Creek Confederacy, and the Country of the Chactaws. Containing an Account of the Soil and Natural Productions of those Regions; together with Observations on the Manners of the Indians. Embellished with Copper-plates, 2nd London edition, Philadelphia, Pa.: Printed by James and Johnson; London: Reprinted for J. Johnson, in St. Paul's Church-yard, →OCLC, pages 148–149:
text: In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract.
ref: 2016, Paul A[ustin] Johnsgard, “Introduction to the North American Grouse”, in The North American Grouse: Their Biology and Behavior, Lincoln, Neb.: Zea Books, →ISBN, page 9, column 1:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
ornithology
glosses: Senses relating to animals.
A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers on or around the neck of a bird.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 2005, Eskandar Firouz, “Mammals of Iran”, in The Complete Fauna of Iran, London; New York, N.Y.: I.B. Tauris, →ISBN, page 88:
text: 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.
ref: 2017 April, Marie Brennan [pseudonym; Bryn Neuenschwander], chapter 10, in Within the Sanctuary of Wings: A Memoir by Lady Trent, New York, N.Y.: Tor Books, →ISBN, page 151:
topics: biology
natural-sciences
zoology
glosses: Senses relating to animals.
A collar of lengthened or distinctively coloured fur on or around the neck of an animal.
examples: text: The stroke of the cut-off valves is very short, and the ruffs on the parts, g, g, regulate its length.
ref: 1835 January, James Whitelaw, “A Method of Working the Slides and Valves of Steam Engines when Using Steam Expansively”, in The Repertory of Patent Inventions, and Other Discoveries & Improvements in Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture; …, volume III, number XIII (New Series), London: Published for the proprietor, by Simpkin, Marshall, and Co. Stationers' Hall Court, →OCLC, page 63, column 1:
text: This plate has a slot in it lengthwise to admit of its being shifted a sixth part of the circumference of the ruff,[…].
ref: 1846 February 25, “Specification of the Patent Granted to William Robertson, Machine-maker, of Gateside, in the Parish of Neilston, Renfrewshire, for Certain Improvements in the Machinery for Spinning and Twisting Cotton, Silk, Wool, Flax, and Other Fibrous Substances.—Sealed Feb. 25, 1846”, in The Repertory of Patent Inventions, and Other Discoveries & Improvements in Arts, Manufactures, and Agriculture; …, volume VIII, number 4 (Enlarged Series), London: Published for the proprietor, by Alexander Macintosh, Great New Street; and sold by Simpkin, Marshall, and Co., Stationers' Hall Court; J. Weale, High Holborn; and G. Hebert, Cheapside, published October 1846, →OCLC, page 205:
topics: engineering
natural-sciences
physical-sciences
glosses: A collar on a shaft or other piece to prevent endwise motion.
examples: text: 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?
ref: 1694, Aesop, Roger L'Estrange, “Fab[le] XXXVIII. A Horse and an Ass.”, in Fables, of Æsop and Other Eminent Mythologists: With Morals and Reflexions, 2nd corrected and amended edition, London: Printed for R[ichard] Sare, B[enjamin] Took, M[atthew] Gillyflower, A. & J. Churchil[l], J[oseph] Hindmarsh, and G[eorge] Sawbridge, →OCLC, page 39:
glosses: An exhibition of haughtiness or pride.
examples: text: 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.
ref: 1549 March 15, Hugh Latimer, “The Second Sermon of Master Hugh Latimer, which He Preached before the King’s Majesty, within His Grace’s Palace at Westminster, the Fifteenth Day of March, 1549”, in George Elwes Corrie, editor, The Works of Hugh Latimer, sometime Bishop of Worcester, Martyr, 1555. Edited for the Parker Society, by the Rev. George Elwes Corrie, B.D. [...], volume I, Cambridge: Printed at the University Press, published 1844, →OCLC, pages 108–109:
glosses: Tumultuous or wanton conduct or procedure.
Derived terms: French ruff