Meaning of Ruff | Babel Free

Definitions

1. A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1560s–1620s).
2. Alternative spelling of ruffe: a small freshwater fish of the genus Gymnocephalus; specifically a Eurasian ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua or Gymnocephalus cernuus) which has spiny fins; the pope.
   alt-of, alternative
3. An instance of ruffing, or an opportunity to ruff, when unable to follow suit.
4. A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruffle.
   often
5. Anything formed with plaits or flutings like a frill.
6. A fish of species Arripis georgianus, found in cool waters off the southern coast of Australia
7. A game similar to whist and its predecessor.
   obsolete
8. Senses relating to animals.
9. A gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of species Calidris pugnax (syn. Philomachus pugnax), 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).
10. A bottom-dwelling carnivorous fish of the family Sparidae found in temperate and tropical waters; a porgy or sea bream.
    obsolete
11. A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers on or around the neck of a bird.
12. A collar of lengthened or distinctively coloured fur on or around the neck of an animal.
13. A collar on a shaft or other piece to prevent endwise motion.
14. An exhibition of haughtiness or pride.
    obsolete
15. Tumultuous or wanton conduct or procedure.
    obsolete

Equivalents

Examples

“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.”

“"Just look here! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and the ruff!"”

“"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.”

“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; […]”

“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.”

“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.”

“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: […]”

“In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract.”

“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.”

“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.”

“The stroke of the cut-off valves is very short, and the ruffs on the parts, g, g, regulate its length.”

“This plate has a slot in it lengthwise to admit of its being shifted a sixth part of the circumference of the ruff,[…].”

“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?”

“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.”

“Of Fiſhes thoſe we feed on in England, are either ſcaled, as ſturgian, ſalmon, grailing, ſhuins, carps, breams, the barbel, mullet, pike, luce, perch, ruffs, herrings, ſprats, pilchers, roche, ſhads, dorry, gudgin, and umbers;[…]”

“Its Principal R[iver] of all thoſe mention'd, is the Yare on which Norwich and Yarmouth ſtands, in which R[iver] the Ruff, a Fish is found, remarkable for being all over Prickles; [...]”

“In the same genus there is another species which makes better eating. This is A[rripis] georgianus, popularly known as the ruff or tommy ruff (again, nothing to do with anything bearing that name in the Old World), but now officially called 'Australian herring' (another aberration). [...] The ruff, on the other hand, although a smaller fish, makes good eating; its flesh is tender and tasty.”

“A Ruff, or Sea-bream. Melanurus.”

“Take, for example, the axiom "Never give declarer a ruff-and-sluff."”

“[W]hat ſhall wee haue a game at Trumpe or Ruffe to driue away the time, how ſay you?”

“I also used quite a few of the flat-fingered kind of ruff (as used before on the doumbek in the baladi section) to embellish some notes.”

CEFR level