Definitions
American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
- n. A tough or rowdy person.
- n. A thug or gangster.
Century Dictionary and Cyclopedia
- n. . A pimp; a pander; a paramour.
- n. A boisterous, brutal fellow; a fellow ready for any desperate crime; a robber; a cutthroat; a murderer.
- n. . The devil.
- Licentious; lascivious: wanton.
- Lawless and cruel; brutal: murderous; inhuman: villainous.
- Violent; tumultuous; stormy.
- To play the ruffian; rage; raise tumult.
Wiktionary
- n. A scoundrel, rascal, or unprincipled, deceitful, brutal and unreliable person.
- v. To play the ruffian; to rage; to raise tumult.
GNU Webster's 1913
- n. obsolete A pimp; a pander; also, a paramour.
- n. A boisterous, cruel, brutal fellow; a desperate fellow ready for murderous or cruel deeds; a cutthroat.
- n. A tough, lawless or bullying person.
- adj. Brutal; cruel; savagely boisterous; murderous.
- v. rare To play the ruffian; to rage; to raise tumult.
WordNet 3.0
- n. a cruel and brutal fellow
Etymologies
- French, pimp, from Old French rufien, from Old Provençal rufian, from Old Italian ruffiano. (American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition)
Examples
“It does not appear, however, that the term ruffian is altogether misplaced.”
“Uncle Angelo had a brother, Salvatore, who was known as a ruffian by most men in the streets.”
“The Countess preserves her impenetrable composure; nothing in her betrays the deadly hatred with which she regards the titled ruffian who has insulted her.”
“He didn't like Ceorl, not even a little, but the ruffian was a good man to have along in a brawl.”
“I was surprised-because while I'll do anything, myself, he didn't strike me as the sort who'd lower himself to being a whore's ruffian, which is what it amounted to.”
“But the ruffian is a good fellow in comparison with these well-dressed, polite scoundrels, who could have given Fielding a hint or two he would have been glad of for the characters of Mr. Jonathan Wild and his friend the Count.”
“She characterized him as a "jug-guzzler," a "swashbuckler," and a "ruffian" -- and smiled as she recalled the picturesque figure with the clean-cut, bronzed face.”
“At hearing her husband called a ruffian by another woman the shadow of resentment passed across Mrs. Hughs 'face, leaving it quivering and red.”
“The ruffian has been a marked man by the keepers and police, they tell me, for the last year or more.”
“Now, as to Casey: he has been described as a ruffian and villain of irredeemable depravity - desperate to the last degree.”
Lists
These user-created lists contain the word ‘ruffian’.
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GRE Barrons Wordlist
A complete Barron's Wordlist for GRE preparation. Your online flashcard replacement.
abase, abash, abate, abbreviate, abdicate, aberrant, aberration, abet, abeyance, abhor, abject, abjure and 4087 more...
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Bad Options
words for those who commit particular crimes: i.e., bank robber, arsonist, etc.
liar, cheat, traitor, arsonist, felon, braggard, thief, profiteer, impostor, phony, fraud, culprit and 212 more...
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LIT - Ulysses - key words and phrases
money cowrie, bedraggle, omphalos, ineluctable, postprandial, bladderwrack, modality barnacle..., loofah, shipworm, cither, embattle, Malachi and 503 more...
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Perponyms
List of words referent to persons who commit specific crimes, or are suspected of committing those crimes, beginning with arsonist and safecracker.
Check out reesetee's nice Bad Guys l...arsonist, safecracker, murderer, rapist, getaway man, jewel thief, accomplice, drug dealer, carjacker, gunrunner, industrial spy, human trafficker and 216 more...
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Unsavory characters
absconder, aretaloger, arriviste, avaunter, bamboozler, bandit, banger, barbarian, barmecide, barrator, beldam, blatherskite and 190 more...
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scoundrels and bastards
already several of these lists, but I wanted my own
varlet, scoundrel, ne'er-do-well, cad, thug, churl, boor, hooligan, bastard, slubberdegullion, dastard, tosspot and 85 more...
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GRE Words R
raiment, regale, reprise, renege, reproach, reprobate, reticent, riposte, rubric, rapacious, ruffian, rote and 3 more...
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big book gre
abase, abbess, abbey, abbot, abdicate, abdomen, abdominal, abduction, abed, aberration, abet, abeyance and 6689 more...
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What Do You Mean ?
U Gotta Know These.......
falter, ruddy, flounder, pallid, fumble, founder, labile, titular, tacit, pragmatic, fatalism, jaded and 112 more...
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Words I See Primarily in Books About ...
furze, peat, turnips, Michaelmas, Candlemas, hunter's moon, harvest moon, banish, rampart, lest, ordure, market day and 74 more...
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Morthalion's Words
supercilious, kvetch, kvass, splurge, erroneous, pugnacious, macabre, gauche, conglomerate, abyss, paraphernalia, kleptomania and 285 more...
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135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms
135 Offensive Shakespearean Terms =)
artless, baggage, barnacle, bawdy, beef-witted, bladder, boil-brained, bootless, brazen, cankerblossom, churlish, churrish and 123 more...
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Unsavoury Types
insults, epithets, etc.
drotchel, drossel, drazel, flutch, lollard, scobberlotcher, ragabash, faineant, cad, buffoon, martinet, tosspot and 116 more...
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The Sog Collection
My big word list.
chaos, flaccid, empirical, flotsam, cacophony, grumble, assuage, awe, romance, mortality, coalesce, fortuitous and 3282 more...
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madmelanie's Words
monkey, folderol, snark, snarky, flibbertigibbet, faith, asshat, pirouette, avuncular, exegesis, memento mori, verisimilitude and 379 more...
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ADW1
obdurate, obstinate, behest, injunction, enjoin, circumspect, ensconce, discursive, lugubrious, doleful, somber, ken and 2476 more...
Tweets
Looking for tweets for ruffian.
Prolagus Ruffiano, in Italian, is a pander. Sep 12, 2008
bilby British slang - "The devil. Cant - May the Ruffian nab the cuffin queer, and let the harmanbeck trine with his kinchins about his colquarron; may the Devil take the justice, and let the constable be hanged with his children about his neck."
- Francis Grose, 'The Vulgar Tongue'. Sep 12, 2008