🐶 A dog's bark 🪶 Neck feathers 👑 A fancy collar 🃏 A trump play 🃏 To play trump 🧵 To make ruffles 🦆 A wading bird

to ruff

9.9

To play a trump card when you cannot follow suit

verb
/rʌf/

Jargon

: cortar

She expertly ruffed her partner's lead to win the trick.

Examples

You should avoid ruffing too early in the game.
If you cannot follow suit, you can ruff by playing your trump card instead.
If you have no hearts left, you may ruff with a spade.
Don't ruff!
She decided to ruff the card because she had no hearts.
During the card game, she had to ruff because she no longer had any hearts.
He decided to ruff the trick with a club since he couldn't follow the suit.

Synonyms

to trump

vsto ruff

1 7.8

Play a card from the trump suit to win a trick

play that high suit card only when unable to follow the led suit

Compounds

neck ruff

Archaic

1 9.9

A high, stiff collar made of linen or lace worn around the neck

Surface Forms

ruff infinitive

ruffs past

ruffs past participle

ruffing present participle

ruffs third person singular

Etymology

To ruff in a card game means to play a trump when you cannot follow suit; think of it as 'putting on' a trump to win the trick, which is why the verb means to take the trick with a trump.