ruff

A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England (1560s–1620s).

You a Captaine? you ſlaue, for what? for tearing a poore Whores Ruffe in a Bawdy-houſe? Hee a Captaine? hang him Rogue, hee liues vpon mouldie ſtew'd-Pruines, and dry'de Cakes.

"Just look here! I am a parson now. Here is both the gown and the ruff!"

Anything formed with plaits or flutings like a frill.

Fair from its humble bed I rear'd this flow'r; / Suckled, and chear'd, with air, and ſun, and ſhow'r; / Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I ſpread, / Bright with the gilded button tipt its head; […]

Senses relating to animals.

A reeve shows her readiness to copulate by crouching in a particular residence. In a crowded lek she selects an individual ruff by turning towards him while still crouching. Some ruffs are thus chosen frequently while others are never selected. Ruff and reeve only copulate after she has crouched and has sometimes nibbled the feathers at the back of the ruff’s head.

During late spring and early summer it becomes difficult to detect Ruffs in their breeding habitat. The males no longer visit the leks, and most have left the area. Some of the females may still be sitting on their eggs, invisible to casual passers-by.

Senses relating to animals.

I ſhall call this bird the painted vulture. […] the head and neck bare of feathers nearly down to the ſtomach, when the feathers begin to cover the ſkin, and ſoon become long and of a ſoft texture, forming a ruff or tippet, in which the bird by contracting his neck can hide that as well as his head: […]

In the ruffed grouse, the special "ruff" feathers are borne on the lateral branches of the lower cervical feather tract.

Senses relating to animals.

The Afghan urial, which is smaller than the Transcaspian urial, is found in the mountains near Iran's eastern frontier, and is the wild sheep of Afghanistan and western Pakistan. Its ruff is black sprinkled with white hairs and its bib is white.

The creature coming toward me went instantly still. On the other side of the fire, one of them jerked upright and popped its ruff as wide as it would go. The other lunged to the side of the second and clamped one clawed hand around its muzzle.

To shape (fabric, etc.) into a ruff; to adorn (a garment, etc.) with a ruff.

The Ladies too were carp’d at, and their Dreſs, / He wants ’em all ruff’d up like good Queen Beſs!

Of a falcon, hawk, etc.: to hit (the prey) without fixing or grabbing hold of it.

Instantly the keen-eyed hawk "stooped," or descended, with a rushing swoop, and struck one of the birds with her claws, but without killing it, which is called "rifling," or "ruffing" it.

To ruffle; to disorder.

Thenceforth the fether in her lofty creſt, / Ruffed of loue, gan lowly to auaile, / And her prowd portaunce, and her princely geſt, / VVith which ſhe earſt tryumphed, now did quaile: […]

To return to the thatching: Straw is not so durable as one could wish; besides, in very high winds, it is liable, if not reeded, to be ruffed a good deal; and the reeding, which is almost like counting the straws one by one, is expensive.

Of a bird: to ruffle its feathers.

"Scat," the crow said. I ignored him. He ruffed up his feathers, doubling his size.

To boast, to brag.

Alternative spelling of ruffe: a small freshwater fish of the genus Gymnocephalus; specifically a Eurasian ruffe (Gymnocephalus cernua or Gymnocephalus cernuus) which has spiny fins; the pope.

Of Fiſhes thoſe we feed on in England, are either ſcaled, as ſturgian, ſalmon, grailing, ſhuins, carps, breams, the barbel, mullet, pike, luce, perch, ruffs, herrings, ſprats, pilchers, roche, ſhads, dorry, gudgin, and umbers;[…]

Its Principal R[iver] of all thoſe mention'd, is the Yare on which Norwich and Yarmouth ſtands, in which R[iver] the Ruff, a Fish is found, remarkable for being all over Prickles; [...]

A fish of species Arripis georgianus, found in cool waters off the southern coast of Australia

In the same genus there is another species which makes better eating. This is A[rripis] georgianus, popularly known as the ruff or tommy ruff (again, nothing to do with anything bearing that name in the Old World), but now officially called 'Australian herring' (another aberration). [...] The ruff, on the other hand, although a smaller fish, makes good eating; its flesh is tender and tasty.

A bottom-dwelling carnivorous fish of the family Sparidae found in temperate and tropical waters; a porgy or sea bream.

A Ruff, or Sea-bream. Melanurus.