Meaning of ruck | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A throng or crowd of people or things; a mass, a pack.
2. A crease, a wrinkle, a pucker, as on fabric.
3. A rucksack; a large backpack.
   especially, slang
4. A small heifer.
5. A surname from German.
6. In Australian rules football
7. A contest in games in which the ball is thrown or bounced in the air and two players from opposing teams attempt to give their team an advantage, typically by tapping the ball to a teammate.
8. A player who competes in said contests; a ruckman or ruckwoman.
9. Either of a ruckman or a ruck rover, but not a rover.
   archaic
10. Any one of a ruckman, a ruck rover or a rover; a follower.
11. The situation formed when a player carrying the ball is brought to the ground and one or more members of each side are engaged above the ball, trying to win possession of it; a loose scrum.
12. The common mass of people or things; the ordinary ranks.
13. An argument or fight.
    colloquial

Examples

“Dandolo was constantly in the ditch, sometimes lying with his side against the bank, and had now been so hustled and driven that, had he been on the other side, he would have had no breath left to carry his rider, even in the ruck of the hunt.”

“‘Here and there among cats one comes across an outstanding superior intellect, just as one does among the ruck of human beings [...].’”

“Your worth as a couple is not down to how passionate your rucks are—I said rucks—and how frantic the making-up sex is.”

“The Henry Royall [a ship], at her parting thence, / Like the Huge Ruck from Gillingham that flevv: […]”

“Shah-e-Kot Valley, Afghanistan. March 2002. I strained to see over the soldiers in front of me. They were struggling to shuffle off the bird as quickly as they could. I dragged my ruck across the floor of the aircraft in my right hand.”

“First of all – a “ruck” is nothing more than a backpack. So to "ruck march" is to carry a heavy duty backpack on a hike (loaded with gear and supplies).”

“Rocky was only five foot six and skinny as a February coyote, but he could hump an eighty pound ruck across twenty mountain miles […]”

CEFR level