ruff

American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition

1. n. A stiffly starched frilled or pleated circular collar of lace, muslin, or other fine fabric, worn by men and women in the 16th and 17th centuries.
2. n. A distinctive collarlike projection around the neck, as of feathers on a bird or of fur on a mammal.
3. n. A Eurasian sandpiper (Philomachus pugnax) the male of which has collarlike, erectile feathers around the neck during the breeding season.
4. n. The playing of a trump card when one cannot follow suit.
5. n. An old game resembling whist.
6. v. To trump or play a trump.
7. n. A small European freshwater fish (Acerina cernua) related to the perches.
8. n. See ruffle².

Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia

1. n. A projecting band or frill, plaited or bristling, especially one worn around the neck. In the sixteenth century ruffs of muslin or lawn, often edged with lace, plaited or goffered, and stiffly starched, were worn by both men and women, some of them very broad, projecting six inches or more in all directions; narrower ruffs of similar material have formed a part of the costume of women at different epochs, down to the present day.
2. n. Something resembling a ruff in form or position. Specifically— In ornithology, a packet, collar, or other set of lengthened, loosened, peculiarly colored, or otherwise distinguished feathers on the neck of a bird, as the condor, the ruff, certain grebes and grouse, etc. Also called ruffle.
3. n. The loose top of the boot worn in the seventeenth century turned over and made somewhat ornamental: same as boot-top, 2 . Sometimes the top was of a different leather from the rest of the boot. Spanish leather is especially mentioned, and the edge was sometimes ornamented with gold lace or similar passement.
4. n. In machinery, an annular ridge formed on a shaft or other piece, commonly at a journal, to prevent motion endwise. Thus, in the cut, a, a are ruffs limiting the length of the journal b, to which the pillows or brasses are exactly fitted, so that the shaft is prevented from moving on end. Ruffs sometimes consist of separate rings fixed in the positions intended by set-screws, etc. They are then called loose ruffs.
5. n. . Figuratively, that which is outspread or made public; an open display; a public exhibition, generally marked by pride or vanity.
6. n. A breed of domestic pigeons; a kind of Jacobin having a ruff.
7. To plait, pucker, or wrinkle; draw up in plaits or folds.
8. . To ruffle; disorder.
9. In falconry, to hit without trussing.
10. To applaud by making a noise with hands or feet. [Scotch.]
11. n. The bird Pavoncella or Machetes pugnax (the female of which is called a reeve), a kind of sandpiper belonging to the family Scolopacidæ, having in breeding-plumage an enormous frill or ruff of feathers of peculiar texture on the neck, and noted for its pugnacity. It is widely distributed in the Old World, and occurs as a straggler in America. The length is about 12 inches. Besides the curious ruff, the bird has at the same season a pair of ear-tufts and the face studded with fleshy tubercles. The general plumage is much variegated, and the feathers of the ruff sport in several colors and endlessly varied patterns. When these feathers are erected in fighting, they form a sort of shield or buckler. Also called combatant and fighting sandpiper.
12. n. Accrina or Gymnocephalus cernua, a fish of the family Percidæ, distinguished by the muciferous channels of the head, the villiform teeth of the jaws, and the connected dorsal fins. It is a freshwater fish of Europe, living in families or schools, and mostly frequenting rather deep and cold waters. In habits and food it much resembles the common perch.
13. n. An old game at cards, the predecessor of whist.
14. n. In card-playing, the act of trumping when the player has no cards of the suit led.
15. In card-playing, to trump when holding none of the suit led.
16. Also, erroneously, rough.
17. Same as rough.
18. n. A state of roughness; ruggedness; hence, rude or riotous procedure or conduct.
19. To heckle (flax) on a coarse heckle called a ruffer.
20. In hat-manuf., to nap.
21. n. An obsolete form of rough.
22. n. A low vibrating beat of a drum; a ruffie. See ruffle.
23. n. A dialectal form of roof.
24. n. A large integumental fold surrounding the base of the foot of Haliotis, the ear-shell.
25. n. A Victorian fish, Arripis georgianus, of the family Percidæ. A. salar is the Australian fish called salmon or salmon-trout. See salmon, 3 .

Wiktionary

1. n. A gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia, Philomachus pugnax; the female is a reeve.
2. n. Any of several freshwater fish of the genus Gymnocephalus (also Acerina), similar to perch; more commonly known as ruffe.
3. n. A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
4. n. A card game similar to whist, and the predecessor of it ruff and honours.
5. v. card games To play a trump card to a trick, other than when trumps were led
6. interj. The bark of a dog; woof.
7. n. Alternative form of ruffe (a fish)

GNU Webster's 1913

1. n. A game similar to whist, and the predecessor of it.
2. n. The act of trumping, especially when one has no card of the suit led.
3. v. (Card Playing) To trump.
4. n. A muslin or linen collar plaited, crimped, or fluted, worn formerly by both sexes, now only by women and children.
5. n. Something formed with plaits or flutings, like the collar of this name.
6. n. An exhibition of pride or haughtiness.
7. n. obsolete Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct.
8. n. (Mil.) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, not so loud as a roll; a ruffle.
9. n. (Mach.) A collar on a shaft ot other piece to prevent endwise motion. See Illust. of Collar.
10. n. (Zoöl.) A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers round, or on, the neck of a bird.
11. n. 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.
12. n. A variety of the domestic pigeon, having a ruff of its neck.
13. v. To ruffle; to disorder.
14. v. (Mil.) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
15. v. (Hawking) To hit, as the prey, without fixing it.
16. v. (Card Playing) To play a trump card at bridge.
17. n. (Zoöl.) A small freshwater European perch (Acerina vulgaris); -- called also pope, blacktail, and stone perch, or striped perch.

WordNet 3.0

1. v. play a trump
2. n. an external body part consisting of feathers or hair about the neck of a bird or other animal
3. n. common Eurasian sandpiper; the male has an erectile neck ruff in breeding season
4. n. (card games) the act of taking a trick with a trump when unable to follow suit
5. n. a high tight collar