ruffle

plural ruffles

1. Any gathered or curled strip of fabric added as trim or decoration.

   She loved the dress with the lace ruffle at the hem.

   2 more examples

   His dress was splendid; his hands glittered with rings, his snuff-box was covered with diamonds, and his ruffles were of the finest Mechlin lace.

   1837, L[etitia] E[lizabeth] L[andon], “A Matrimonial Tête-à-Tête”, in Ethel Churchill: Or, The Two Brides. […], volume II, London: Henry Colburn, […], →OCLC, page 169

   Mind you, clothes were clothes in those days. […] Frills, ruffles, flounces, lace, complicated seams and gores: not only did they sweep the ground and have to be held up in one hand elegantly as you walked along, but they had little capes or coats or feather boas.

   1977, Agatha Christie, chapter 4, in An Autobiography, part II, London: Collins, →ISBN

   Synonyms: frill, furbelow

2. Disturbance; agitation; commotion.

   to put the mind in a ruffle

3. governmentA low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruff.
4. biologyThe connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur.

present singular third person ruffles · participle present ruffling · participle past ruffled · past ruffled

1. transitiveTo make a ruffle in; to curl or flute, as an edge of fabric.

   Ruffle the end of the cuff.

2. transitiveTo disturb; especially, to cause to flutter.

   The wind ruffled the papers.

   5 more examples

   Her sudden volley of insults ruffled his composure.

   She […]smoothed the ruffled seas.

   1697, Virgil, “Palamon and Arcite”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

   the fantastic revelries […] that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile

   1832, [Isaac Taylor], Saturday Evening. […], London: Holdsworth and Ball, →OCLC

   But, ever after, the small violence done / Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart, / As the sharp wind that ruffles all day long / A little bitter pool about a stone / On the bare coast.

   1859, Alfred Tennyson, “Guinevere”, in Idylls of the King, London: Edward Moxon & Co., […], →OCLC, pages 227–228

   These ruffle the tranquillity of the mind.

   1860, Sir William Hamilton, Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

   Synonyms: perturb, trouble, unsettle, agitate, freak, sting, bother, bring down

3. intransitiveTo grow rough, boisterous, or turbulent.

   The night comes on, and the bleak winds / Do sorely ruffle.

   c. 1603–1606, William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of King Lear”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, [Act II, scene iv]

4. intransitiveTo become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter.

   On his right shoulder his thick mane ', / Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind.

   1697, Virgil, “The Third Book of the Georgics”, in John Dryden, transl., The Works of Virgil: Containing His Pastorals, Georgics, and Æneis. […], London: […] Jacob Tonson, […], →OCLC

5. intransitiveTo be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger.

   They would ruffle with jurors.

   1622, Francis, Lord Verulam, Viscount St. Alban [i.e. Francis Bacon], The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh, […], London: […] W[illiam] Stansby for Matthew Lownes, and William Barret, →OCLC

   2 more examples

   gallants who ruffled in silk and embroidery

   1822, [Walter Scott], Peveril of the Peak. […], volume (please specify |volume=I to IV), Edinburgh: […] Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Hurst, Robinson, and Co., →OCLC

   He was engaged in finding the steward, and in aiding him to cloak his mistress; then with a ruffling air, a new acquirement, which he had picked up since he came to Paris, he made a way for her through the crowd.

   1901, Stanley J. Weyman, chapter I, in Count Hannibal

6. To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle.
7. To erect in a ruff, as feathers.

   [T]he barge with oar and sail / Moved from the brink, like some full-breasted swan / That, fluting a wild carol ere her death, / Ruffles her pure cold plume, and takes the flood / With swarthy webs.

   1842, Alfred Tennyson, “Morte d’Arthur”, in Poems. […], volume II, London: Edward Moxon, […], →OCLC, page 16

8. governmentTo beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
9. To throw together in a disorderly manner.

   Within a thicket I reposed; when round / I ruffled up fall'n leaves in heap; and found, / Let fall from heaven, a sleep interminate.

   1614–1615, Homer, “The Seventh Book of Homer’s Odysseys”, in Geo[rge] Chapman, transl., Homer’s Odysses. […], London: […] Rich[ard] Field [and William Jaggard], for Nathaniell Butter, published 1615, →OCLC; republished in The Odysseys of Homer, […], volume I, London: John Russell Smith, […], 1857, →OCLC, page 165, lines 395–397