ruff 1 (r f)n. 1. 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. A distinctive collarlike projection around the neck, as of feathers on a bird or of fur on a mammal. 3. A Eurasian sandpiper (Philomachus pugnax) the male of which has collarlike, erectile feathers around the neck during the breeding season. [Perhaps short for ruffle.] ruffed adj. |
| ruff 2 (rf) Games n. 1. The playing of a trump card when one cannot follow suit. 2. An old game resembling whist. tr. & intr.v. ruffed, ruff·ing, ruffs To trump or play a trump. [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  nfl re; see inflate).] |
| ruff 3 (rf) n. A small European freshwater fish (Acerina cernua) related to the perches. [Middle English ruffe, probably from Medieval Latin rufus, a kind of fish.] |
| ruff 4 (rf) n. See ruffle2. [Of imitative origin.] |
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