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Ruffle   /rˈəfəl/   Listen
noun
Ruffle  n.  
1.
That which is ruffled; specifically, a strip of lace, cambric, or other fine cloth, plaited or gathered on one edge or in the middle, and used as a trimming; a frill.
2.
A state of being ruffled or disturbed; disturbance; agitation; commotion; as, to put the mind in a ruffle.
3.
(Mil.) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, not so loud as a roll; called also ruff.
4.
(Zool.) The connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of any one of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur. See Ootheca.
Ruffle of a boot, the top turned down, and scalloped or plaited.


verb
Ruffle  v. t.  (past & past part. ruffled; pres. part. ruffling)  
1.
To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle.
2.
To furnish with ruffles; as, to ruffle a shirt.
3.
To oughen or disturb the surface of; to make uneven by agitation or commotion. "The fantastic revelries... that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile." "She smoothed the ruffled seas."
4.
To erect in a ruff, as feathers. "(the swan) ruffles her pure cold plume."
5.
(Mil.) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
6.
To discompose; to agitate; to disturb. "These ruffle the tranquillity of the mind." "But, ever after, the small violence done Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart."
7.
To throw into disorder or confusion. "Where best He might the ruffled foe infest."
8.
To throw together in a disorderly manner. (R.) "I ruffled up falen leaves in heap."
To ruffle the feathers of, to exite the resentment of; to irritate.


Ruffle  v. i.  
1.
To grow rough, boisterous, or turbulent. (R.) "The night comes on, and the bleak winds Do sorely ruffle."
2.
To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter. "On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined, Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind."
3.
To be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger. "They would ruffle with jurors." "Gallants who ruffled in silk and embroidery."





Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48


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"Ruffle" Quotes from Famous Books



... were covered with fringed, drooping eyelashes. She had braids of dark hair wreathed around her head, a soft pink color in her cheeks, and a rosebud mouth, womanly, fresh, and lovely. Kate was clad in a pink muslin dress, with a tiny white ruffle around her white throat. She was armed with four steely needles, which were so many bright arrows that pierced my heart through and through. Over her fingers glided a small blue thread, which proceeded from the ball of yarn I held in ...
— The Continental Monthly, Vol. 5, No. 5, May, 1864 - Devoted To Literature And National Policy • Various
... part of Gaius in apostolic times. . . . Our trunks came this morning. Father stood and saw them all brought into Dr. Skinner's entry, and then he swung his hat and gave a 'hurrah,' as any man would whose wife had not had a clean cap or ruffle for a week. Father does not succeed very well in opening purses here. Mr. Eastman says, however, that this is not of much consequence. I saw to-day a notice in the 'Philadelphian' about father, setting forth how 'this distinguished brother, with his large family, having torn themselves from ...
— The Life of Harriet Beecher Stowe • Charles Edward Stowe
... without to hinder the ascent of creeping things, and snugly plastered within to resist the damp, was the pigeon-house—a veritable feudal tower, a veritable feudal plaisance of birds, which the common people dared not so much as ruffle. About a thousand of them were housed there, each in its little chamber, encouraged to grow plump, and to breed, in perfect self-content. From perch to perch of the great axle-tree in the centre, monastic feet might climb, ...
— Miscellaneous Studies: A Series of Essays • Walter Horatio Pater
... led Barnabas across the yard to a certain wing or off-shoot of the inn, where beneath a deep, shadowy gable was a door. Yet here he must needs pause a moment to glance down at himself to settle a ruffle and adjust his hat ere, lifting the latch, he ...
— The Amateur Gentleman • Jeffery Farnol et al
... but that he was satisfied that vigorous effort was a cure for a great many ills that seemed far gone. "Don't heed your mood," he said, "and don't believe there is any calm so dead that your own lungs can't ruffle it with a breeze. If you have work to do, don't wait to feel like it; set to work and you ...
— Roderick Hudson • Henry James


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