ruff1
n.
- a projecting starched frill worn round the neck, characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean costume.
- a projecting or conspicuously coloured ring of feathers or hair round the neck of a bird or mammal.
- a pigeon of a domestic breed with a ruff of feathers.
(pl. same or ruffs)
a North Eurasian wading bird, the male of which has a large ruff and ear tufts in the breeding season.
[Philomachus pugnax; the female is called a reeve.]
Derivative
Etymology
C16: prob. from a var. of rough.
ruff3
v.
(in bridge and whist) play a trump in a trick which was led in a different suit.
▸play a trump on (a card).
n.
an act of ruffing or opportunity to ruff.
Etymology
C16 (orig. the name of a card game): from OFr. rouffle (perh. an alt. of Ital. trionfo ‘a trump’).
ruff4
n.
Music one of the basic patterns (rudiments) of drumming, consisting of a single note preceded by either two grace notes played with the other stick or three grace notes played with alternating sticks.
Etymology
C17: prob. imitative.
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