Word Confusion: Rough versus Ruff

Plural for the noun: roughs
Gerund: roughing

Third person present verb: roughs
Past tense or past participle: roughed
Present participle: roughing

Plural for the noun: ruffs

Third person present verb: ruffs
Past tense or past participle: ruffed
Present participle: ruffing

Variant spelling: ruffe

• Not smooth or level
• [Opposite of smooth] Denoting the face of a tennis or squash racket from which the loops formed in the stringing process project (used as a call when the racket is spun to decide the right to serve first or to choose ends)

[Of a person or their behavior] Not gentle

• Unmannerly or rude
• Violent or boisterous
• [Of an area or occasion] Characterized by or notorious for the occurrence of violent behavior
• [Of weather or the sea] Wild and stormy
• [Of an uninhabited region or large land area] Steep or uneven and covered with high grass, brush, trees, stones, etc.

Not finished tidily or decoratively

• Plain and basic
• Put together without the proper materials or skill
• Makeshift
• Lacking sophistication or refinement
• Not worked out or correct in every detail

Sharp or harsh

[Of a voice] Harsh and rasping

• [Of wine or another alcoholic drink] Sharp or harsh in taste

[Informal] Difficult and unpleasant or unfair

• [As complement] Unwell

[Phonetics] Uttered with aspiration

• Having the sound of h
• Aspirated

Adverb:
[Informal] In a manner that lacks gentleness

• Harshly or violently

[British] Without usual conveniences

• Without proper shelter

Shaggy or coarse

Noun:
[Mainly British] A disreputable and violent person

[On a golf course] Longer grass around the fairway and the green

A preliminary sketch for a design

An uncut precious stone

Verb, transitive:
Work or shape (something) in a rough, preliminary fashion

Make uneven

[Informal; rough it] Live in discomfort with only basic necessities

• Woof
• Arf

Noun:
A high, tight collar ¹

• A projecting starched, fluted frill worn around the neck, characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean costume
• Anything formed with plaits or flutings

A projecting or conspicuously colored ring of feathers or hair around the neck of a bird or mammal

[Plural ruff or ruffs] A northern Eurasian wading bird, the male of which has a large variously colored ruff and ear tufts in the breeding season, used in display

[Also roughy] An edible marine fish of Australian inshore waters that is related to the Australian salmon ²

[Obsolete] An exhibition of pride or haughtiness

An act of ruffing or opportunity to ruff ³

• [Obsolete] Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct

The act of trumping

One of the basic patterns (rudiments) of drumming, consisting of a single note preceded by either two grace notes played with the other stick (double-stroke ruff or drag) or three grace notes played with alternating sticks (four-stroke ruff) ⁴

• [Military] A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll
• A ruffle

[Also ruffe] A freshwater fish of the perch family, with a greenish-brown back and yellow sides and underparts ⁵

[Engineering] A collar on a shaft or other piece to prevent endwise motion ⁶

Verb:
[Rare] To ruffle ¹

• [Rare] To disorder

[Military] To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum ³

[Hawking] To hit (the prey) without fixing it

Verb, intransitive:
[In bridge, whist, and similar card games] To take a trick with a trump ³

Verb, transitive:
Play a trump on (a card in another suit) ³

• To trump when unable to follow suit

[Hair] Tease ⁶

Her skin felt dry and rough.

Whosever wins the rough gets to choose a side, defer the decision, or choose to serve or receive first.

Strollers should be capable of withstanding rough treatment.

The workmen hate going to the rough areas of town.

The lifeboat crew braved rough seas to rescue a couple.

She preferred to hunt over rough country.

The customers sat at rough wooden tables.

He had one arm in a rough sling.

She took care of him in her rough, kindly way.

He had a rough draft of his new novel.

Be careful. He has a rough temper.

They exchanged rough words.

His voice was rough with barely suppressed fury.

He refilled the mug with rough cider.

The teachers gave me a rough time because my image didn’t fit.

The first day of a job is rough on everyone.

The altitude had hit her and she was feeling rough.

The dog had a rough coat.

The rough sound of the aspirated h is obvious in whole, who, and whom.

Adverb:
Treat ’em rough but treat ’em fair.

He became homeless and had to sleep rough.

I don’t like those boys — they play too rough.

Noun:
The rear of the column was attacked by roughs.

He was the roughest of the rough.

His second shot was in the rough on the left.

I did a rough to work out the scale of the lettering.

Miners discovered one of the biggest diamond roughs in history.

Verb, transitive:
The piece of glass is now roughed into a circular form.

Be sure the flat surfaces of wood are roughed down.

The water was roughed by the wind.

Now rough up the icing with a palette knife.

She had had to rough it alone in a dive.

The ruffs were getting louder.

We heard a series of ruffs and knew our prey was treed.

“‘Ruff, ruff!’ Around the corner, a little light brown, short-haired dog came running” (Kayaalp).

Noun:
The famous Elizabethan ruff was worn by both men and women.

“I reared this flower; Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread.” – Alexander Pope

The bird wore a ruff of long pointed feathers.

My nape stirred like the ruff of a dog in a thunderstorm.

The migratory ruff is a highly gregarious sandpiper.

The Australian herring is also known as the ruff, tommy ruff, or Australian ruff.

He gave his partner a spade ruff.

I also used quite a few of the flat-fingered kind of ruff . . . to embellish some notes” (Lewis).

Dennis Delucia states: “A single-stroke four (formerly ‘four-stroke ruff’) uses single-stroked grace notes: therefore ‘ruff'” (Becker).

If you roll your rs when saying ruff, that’s exactly how it will sound on a snare drum.

The ruff is an invasive fish and is reproducing faster than other species.

“How many princes in the ruff of all their glory, have been taken down from the head of a conquering army to the wheel of the victor’s chariot!” – L’Estrange

Ah, “to ruffle it out in a riotous ruff.” – Latimer

“This plate has a slot in it lengthwise to admit of its being shifted a sixth part of the circumference of the ruff” (Specification).

“Straw . . . is liable, if not reeded, to be ruffed a good deal;” (Morris).

“I left my canoe below the fish lay, casting upward, so if I could hook a fish from shore I could lead him down without danger of ruffing the pool” (Forest).

“I heard my hero ruffing it away immediately in front of the window” (Power).

The drummers ruffed the opening roll and were followed by the bagpipers.

Dang, George’s falcon ruffed his prey.

Verb, intransitive:
The declarer ruffed and then led a heart.

A player must have no cards left in the suit led in order to ruff.

Verb, transitive:
South ruffs a low spade.

It would be best to ruff two of the remaining three Heart losers using dummy’s two trump (Ruffing).

He ruffed his partner’s ace.

She ruffed his hair, making it stand up.

1. Early 16th century. First used denoting a frill around a sleeve. Probably from a variant of rough.
2. Late 19th century, from ruffe.
3. Late 16th century, originally the name of a card game resembling whist, from the Old French rouffle, a parallel formation to the Italian ronfa (perhaps an alteration of trionfo meaning a trump).
4. Late 17th century and probably imitative.
5. Late Middle English and probably from a variant of rough.
6. Unknown.