ruff

• The Herb Pantagruelion hath a little Root somewhat hard and ruff, roundish, terminating in an obtuse and very blunt Point, and having some of its Veins, Strings or Filaments coloured with some spots of white, […] -...
• Up to this time it have been an uphill bisness. The teem was a good one, and the gear all sound, and the waggin greasd, but the rode is perhaps the ruffest in the world. - 1873, Bill Arp [pseudonym; Charles Henry...

• "Ruff, ruff!" Around the corner, a little light brown, short-haired dog came running. On seeing the little brown terrier, Annie and Marie looked at one another. Letting out a moan, Annie said, "Oh no, it's JB! I wish...

• 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. - c. 1596–1599, William Shakespeare, “The...
• "Just look here! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and the ruff!" - 1886, Peter Christen Asbjø￵rnsen, translated by H.L. Brækstad, Folk and Fairy Tales, page 309:
• "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. - 1960, P[elham] G[renville] Wodehouse, chapter XII, in...

• 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; […] - 1742, [Alexander]...

• 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...
• 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...

1. 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).

2. (ornithology) A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers on or around the neck of a bird.

   • 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...
   • In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract. - 2016, Paul A[ustin] Johnsgard, “Introduction to the North American Grouse”, in The North...

3. (zoology) A collar of lengthened or distinctively coloured fur on or around the neck of an animal.

   • 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...
   • 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...

• The stroke of the cut-off valves is very short, and the ruffs on the parts, g, g, regulate its length. - 1835 January, James Whitelaw, “A Method of Working the Slides and Valves of Steam Engines when Using Steam...
• This plate has a slot in it lengthwise to admit of its being shifted a sixth part of the circumference of the ruff,[…]. - 1846 February 25, “Specification of the Patent Granted to William Robertson, Machine-maker, of...

• 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? - 1694, Aesop, Roger L'Estrange, “Fab[le] XXXVIII....

• 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. - 1549 March 15, Hugh...

• 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...
• 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; [...] - 1703, “Norfolk”, in An...

• 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...

Synonyms: Australian herring tommy ruff

• A Ruff, or Sea-bream. Melanurus. - [1677, Thomas Holyoke [i.e., Thomas Holyoake], “A Ruff, or Sea-bream”, in A Large Dictionary in Three Parts: I. The English before the Latin, Containing above Ten Thousand Words More...

• Take, for example, the axiom "Never give declarer a ruff-and-sluff." - 2008, Phillip Alder, “The Just-So Story of a Justified Ruff-and-Sluff”, in The New York Times:

• [W]hat ſhall wee haue a game at Trumpe or Ruffe to driue away the time, how ſay you? - 1595, G[eorge] P[eele], The Old Wiues Tale. A Pleasant Conceited Comedie, Played by the Queenes Maiesties Players, London: Printed...

• 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. - 2003, Rob Lewis, “3 Camps: Rudimental Drum Solo”, in Crosstraining: A Method for...

• The Ladies too were carp’d at, and their Dreſs, / He wants ’em all ruff’d up like good Queen Beſs! - 1754 December 3, [David] Garrick, “Epilogue, […]”, in [John Brown], Barbarossa. A Tragedy. […], London: […] J[acob]...

• Instantly the keen-eyed hawk "stooped," or descended, with a rushing swoop, and struck one of the birds with her claws, but without killing it, which is called "rifling," or "ruffing" it. - 1888, Good Words, volume 29,...

• Thenceforth the fether in her lofty creſt, / Ruffed of loue, gan lowly to auaile, / And her prowd portaunce, and her princely geſt, / VVith which ſhe earſt tryumphed, now did quaile: […] - 1590, Edmund Spenser, “Book...
• To return to the thatching: Straw is not so durable as one could wish; besides, in very high winds, it is liable, if not reeded, to be ruffed a good deal; and the reeding, which is almost like counting the straws one by...
• I left my canoe below the fish lay, casting upward, so if I could hook a fish from shore I could lead him down without danger of ruffing the pool. - 1896 May 9, Forest and Stream, volume 36, New York, N.Y.: Forest and...

• "Scat," the crow said. I ignored him. He ruffed up his feathers, doubling his size. - 2015, Tor Seidler, chapter 1, in Firstborn (A Caitlyn Dloughy Book), New York, N.Y.: Atheneum Books for Young Readers, →ISBN, page 7:

• […] Mr Gillies ruffed and screamed out so loud in approbation, that he fell from his chair, and brought an American gentleman down with him. - 1831, “the Ettrick Shepherd” [pseudonym; James Hogg], “The Noctes Sang”, in...

• Zia [Mahmood] ruffed the club return and then played the ace of hearts and a heart, leaving declarer with another spade loser for two down. - 2005, Mark Horton, “2004: Loser Takes Nothing”, in Ray Lee, editor, The Hands...
• The declarer may not have fear of losing control on trumps, because even after ruffing in one hand, the other hand will have sufficient length to draw the trumps. A 4-4 fit of trumps is considered to be the best and...

• Then I played on diamonds, to ruff out the suit – but East had four diamonds and West none, so I had annoyingly to lose a trick to East's ♣K in the end. - 1999, Zia Mahmood, David Burn, “The Shriek”, in Ray Lee, editor,...
• It never ceases to amaze me how many times people get in trouble by failing to first ruff out their sure losers. - 2016, Ken Casey, “Introduction: Focus Your Attention on Ruffing Losers”, in Playing Beginning Bridge,...

• [A] wooden leg and an empty coat sleeve, and fourteen poor pennies a-day, are all that I have got by allowing myself to be seduced by the cursed din of a Scotchman's bagpipe. I was once a good yeoman, in Kent, and in an...

• If anything could have kept me awake, this cracked drum would; and, in truth, I had my fears, when, on entering my room, I heard my hero ruffing it away immediately in front of the window; but they were groundless...