Word: ruff Part of Speech: noun Etymology: Clipping of ruffle, or possibly from rough. Pronunciation: /ɹʌf/, /ɹəf/, /ɹɐf/, /ɹʊf/, /ɾʌf/ 1. A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1560s–1620s). Example: 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. Example: "Just look here! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and the ruff!" 2. Anything formed with plaits or flutings like a frill. Example: 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; […] 3. Senses relating to animals. Example: 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. Example: 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. 4. Senses relating to animals. Example: 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: […] Example: In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract. 5. Senses relating to animals. Example: 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. Example: 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. 6. A collar on a shaft or other piece to prevent endwise motion. Example: The stroke of the cut-off valves is very short, and the ruffs on the parts, g, g, regulate its length. Example: This plate has a slot in it lengthwise to admit of its being shifted a sixth part of the circumference of the ruff,[…]. 7. An exhibition of haughtiness or pride. Labels: obsolete Example: 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? 8. Tumultuous or wanton conduct or procedure. Labels: obsolete Example: 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.