ruffle

Any gathered or curled strip of fabric added as trim or decoration.

Noun

  1. Any gathered or curled strip of fabric added as trim or decoration.
    • She loved the dress with the lace ruffle at the hem.
    • His dress was splendid; his hands glittered with rings, his snuff-box was covered with diamonds, and his ruffles were of the finest Mechlin lace. - 1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Matrimonial Tête-à-Tête”, in...
    • Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but...
  2. Disturbance; agitation; commotion.
    • to put the mind in a ruffle
  3. A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruff.
  4. The connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur.

Origin

From Middle English ruffelen, perhaps from Old Norse hrufla (“to graze, scratch”) or Middle Low German ruffelen (“to wrinkle, curl”). Further origin unknown. Related to Middle Dutch ruyffelen, German Low German ruffeln. See English ruff.

Forms

ruffles

Synonyms

frill furbelow

Derived

bed ruffle dust ruffle ruffleless

Verb

  1. To make a ruffle in; to curl or flute, as an edge of fabric.
    • Ruffle the end of the cuff.
  2. To disturb; especially, to cause to flutter.
    • The wind ruffled the papers.
    • Her sudden volley of insults ruffled his composure.
    • She […]smoothed the ruffled seas. - 1697, Virgil, “Palamon and Arcite”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC:

    Synonyms: perturb trouble unsettle agitate freak bother bring down discompose disconcert enturbulate disturb mortify put out ruffle throw off balance upset flurry

  3. To grow rough, boisterous, or turbulent.
    • The night comes on, and the bleak winds / Do sorely ruffle. - c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […]...
  4. To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter.
    • On his right shoulder his thick mane ', / Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind. - 1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and...
  5. To be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger.
    • They would ruffle with jurors. - 1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and...
    • gallants who ruffled in silk and embroidery - 1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC:
    • He was engaged in finding the steward, and in aiding him to cloak his mistress; then with a ruffling air, a new acquirement, which he had picked up since he came to Paris, he made a way for her through the crowd. -...
  6. To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle.
  7. To erect in a ruff, as feathers.
    • [T]he barge with oar and sail / Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan / That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, / Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood / With swarthy webs. - 1842, Alfred...
  8. To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
  9. To throw together in a disorderly manner.
    • Within a thicket I reposed; when round / I ruffled up fall'n leaves in heap; and found, / Let fall from heaven, a sleep interminate. - 1614–1615, Homer, “The Seventh Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman,...

Forms

ruffles ruffling ruffled

Derived

ruffleable ruffle a few feathers ruffle any feathers ruffle feathers rufflement ruffler ruffle some feathers ruffle someone's feathers ruffle up ruffly toruffle unrufflable unruffle unruffled