ruff

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“
Preposterously large roses covered his shoes; his ruff was a "treble-quadruple-dedalion;" his gloves richly embroidered; a large crimson satin purse hung from his girdle; and he was scented with powders and pulvilios.

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Definitions (44)

Toggle American Heritage definitions American Heritage Dictionary (8)

  1. noun 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. noun A distinctive collarlike projection around the neck, as of feathers on a bird or of fur on a mammal.
  3. noun A Eurasian sandpiper (Philomachus pugnax) the male of which has collarlike, erectile feathers around the neck during the breeding season.
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Examples (50)

  • Slowly Hook let his head emerge from his ruff, and listened so intently that he could have caught the echo of the tick. —  Peter Pan
  • A pampered pooch gets caught up in a "ruff" - and-tumble comedy adventure in BEVERLY HILLS CHIHUAHUA, available on DVD and Blu-ray on March 3, 2009 from Walt Disney Studios Home Ent. When a diamond-clad, bootie-wearing Beverly Hills beauty gets lost on a Mexican vacation, she proves that good things really do come in small packages.
  • She did not wear a ruff, anyhow Wag, who had been darting about in the air while we walked to his home, followed us in on foot. —  The Five Jars
  • In the reign of James I., the ruff was occasionally exchanged for a wide stiff collar, standing out horizontally and squarely, made of similar stuff, starched and wired, and sometimes edged like the ruff with lace. —  Notes and Queries, Number 35, June 29, 1850 A Medium of Inter-communication for Literary Men, Artists, Antiquaries, Genealogists, etc
  • In Dulwich Gallery there is an interesting portrait by Rubens of an elderly lady in a great Spanish ruff, which is believed to be the portrait of his mother Rembrandt Van Rhyn is said to have been born near Leyden about 1606 or 1608, for there is a doubt as to the exact date. —  The Old Masters and Their Pictures For the Use of Schools and Learners in Art
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Etymologies (12)

Toggle American Heritage etymologies American Heritage Dictionary (4)

  1. Perhaps short for ruffle1.
  2. Obsolete French ronfle, roffle, a kind of card game, from Old French ronfle, from renfler, to rise : re-, re- + enfler, to cause to swell (from Latin īnflāre; see inflate).
  3. Middle English ruffe, probably from Medieval Latin rufus, a kind of fish.
  4. Of imitative origin.

Toggle Century etymologies Century Dictionary (8)

  1. Early modern English ruffe; not found in earlier use, and prob. an abbreviation of ruffle: see ruffle, n.
  2. from ruff, n., or abbreviation of ruffle, v. Cf. Italian arruffare, disorder, ruffle the hair.
  3. Formerly also ruffe; said to be from ruff, n., and so named because the male has a ruff round its neck in the breeding season; but this is doubtful. The female is called a reeve, a name supposed to be formed from ruff by some change left unexplained, but prob. from a different source.
  4. from Middle English ruffe, a fish, glossed by L. sparrus for sparus; origin obscure.
  5. Prob. accommodation from Italian ronfa, “a game at cardes called ruffe or trump” (Florio) (whence also French ronfle, “hand-ruff, at cards”—Cotgrave); prob. a reduced form of trionfo “a trump at cards, or the play called trump or ruff” (Florio): see trump. The Portuguese rufa, rifa, a set of cards of the same color, a sequence, is perhaps from English
  6. from ruff, n.
  7. An obsolete spelling of rough.
  8. A phonetic spelling of rough, v.
 

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