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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



... (pleasure) 827. blush, suffusion, flush; hectic; tingling, thrill, turn, shock; agitation &c (irregular motion) 315; quiver, heaving, flutter, flurry, fluster, twitter, tremor; throb, throbbing; pulsation, palpitation, panting; trepidation, perturbation; ruffle, hurry of spirits, pother, stew, ferment; state of excitement. V. feel; receive an impression &c n.; be impressed with &c adj.; entertain feeling, harbor feeling, cherish feeling &c n.. respond; catch the flame, catch ...
— Roget's Thesaurus of English Words and Phrases: Body • Roget

... a plaited ruffle of the wide sleeve, and Mary felt that he had never less thought of her than when he so touched her dress. She put aside the deep little pang that gave her to say: "It's true, Jack, she ought to have young things, just because they are going from her; one feels that: She oughtn't to be standing ...
— A Fountain Sealed • Anne Douglas Sedgwick

... contradictory tendencies. When, however, these embryonic disorders are once righted, each possible life knows its natural paradise, and what some unintelligent outsider might say in dispraise of that ideal will never wound or ruffle the self-justified creature whose ideal it is, any more than a cat's aversion to water will disturb a ...
— The Life of Reason • George Santayana

... of not unwelcome, though, indeed, ashy enough way, reminded of the ultimate exhaustion even of the most fiery life; judge how to me this unwarrantable vitality in my wife must come, sometimes, it is true, with a moral and a calm, but oftener with a breeze and a ruffle. ...
— I and My Chimney • Herman Melville

... of the President's course, but they failed to ruffle him. On his asking if I was taking any part in the campaign, I referred to a speech that I had made on the Fourth of July in Leipsic, and another to the Cornell University students just before my departure, with the remark that I felt that a foreign diplomatic representative ...
— Volume I • Andrew Dickson White


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