ruff
1
9.9
- noun
- /rʌf/
- Archaic
:
gorguera
- A silver fox fur ruff, taken from an old coat in the mission barrel, added comfort on the trail.
- a ruff collar
- white ruff
- ruff at the neck
Examples
-
The ruff at her neck was tinged with green from which jeweled ropes of pearls and beads hung down.
Fiction book (2001) -
Her belly rounded out just beneath the stiff ruff.
Fiction book (2002) -
Very stylish, Cat, all you need is a white ruff.
Fiction book (1996) -
He smoothed the fine whiskers of his beard thoughtfully, then adjusted the small starched ruff at his neck.
Fiction book (2002) -
It had a mottled, grey coat with a huge, furry pelt ringing its neck like an Elizabethan ruff.
Fiction book (2001) -
I am uncomfortable enough in a standard four-in-hand tie; pity the poor seventeenth-century businessmen and divines, so often depicted in their constraining neck ruffs.
Academic text (1991) -
He lacked a cravat—crowns were tight in his income bracket—but he had tied his chemise close to his neck in a mock-ruff, unstarched.
Blog text (21) -
Jane checked her reflection in the mirror above her dressing table and tweaked the delicate ruff of her collar into place.
-
An unbelievably wide Elizabethan ruff formed the collar.
-
Elaborate ruffs, like squashed chrysanthemums, burst from their collars.
Synonyms
121
1.0
A band of material around the neck of a shirt, coat, dress, or shoe
21
5.6
A strip of gathered cloth used as a decorative edge on clothes
A high, stiff collar made of linen or lace worn around the neck
A stiff ruffled collar worn by people in the 1500s
A stiff lace collar from the 1600s that frames the face
Compounds
How Ornate
Surface Forms
Etymology
Ruff for the stiff collar comes from an old word for a pleated neck 'frill' and is the same idea you see in the word ruffle, so a ruff is simply a decorative neck frill you wear.