1. n.1 a projecting starched frill worn round the neck esp. in the 16th c.
2 a projecting or conspicuously coloured ring of feathers or hair round a bird's or animal's neck.
3 a domestic pigeon like a jacobin.
4 (fem. reeve) a wading bird, Philomachus pugnax, of which the male has a ruff and ear-tufts in the breeding season.
Derivatives:
rufflike adj.
Etymology: perh. f. ruff ROUGH 2. n. (also ruffe) any of various fish, esp. a perch-like freshwater fish, Gymnocephalus cernua, found in European lakes and rivers.
Etymology: ME, prob. f. ROUGH 3. v. & n.
--v.intr. & tr. trump at cards.
--n. an act of ruffing.
Etymology: orig. the name of a card-game: f. OF roffle, rouffle, It. ronfa (perh. alt. of trionfo TRUMP(1))