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ruff1

Syllabification: (ruff)
Pronunciation: /rəf/

Translate ruff | into French | into Italian | into Spanish
Definition of ruff

noun

  • 1a projecting starched frill worn around the neck, characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean costume.
  • 2a projecting or conspicuously colored ring of feathers or hair around the neck of a bird or mammal.
  • 3 (plural same or ruffs) a northern Eurasian wading bird, the male of which has a large variously colored ruff and ear tufts in the breeding season, used in display.
    • Philomachus pugnax, family Scolopacidae; the female is called a reeve

Derivatives

ruffed

adjective

rufflike

Pronunciation: /-ˌlīk/

adjective

Origin:

early 16th century (first used denoting a frill around a sleeve): probably from a variant of rough

ruff in other Oxford dictionaries

Definition of ruff in the British & World English dictionary

Nearby words

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