ruddock, the redbreast or robin. Spenser, Epithal. 82; Cymbeline, iv. 2. 224. In common prov. use in Scotland, and in many parts of England (EDD.). ME. ruddok (Prompt), OE. rudduc.
ruddock, a gold coin. Sir John Oldcastle, i. 2. 158; London Prodigal, ii. 1. 36; Webster, Devil’s Law-case, ii. 1. See Nares.
rudesby, an unmannerly or boorish person. Golding, Metam. v. 583; fol. 64, back (1603).
ruelle, the space in a bedroom between the bed and the wall. Etherege, Man of Mode, iv. 2 (Sir Fopling); Farquhar, Constant Couple, i. 1 (Wildair). ME. ruel (P. Plowman, C. x. 79); F. ‘ruelle: la ruelle du lict, the space between the bed and the wall’ (Cotgr.).
ruffe, ‘the Card-game called Ruffe or Trump’, so Cotgrave (s.v. Triomphe); Peele, Old Wives’ Tale (Clunch); the trump card, ‘the Ruff at Cards, Charta dominatrix’, Coles, Eng.-Lat. Dict., 1699. Ital. ronfa, a card-game (Florio), perhaps a popular corruption of trionfo; F. ‘triomphe, a Trump at cards’ (Cotgr.).
ruffe, the highest pitch of some exalted or excited condition; ‘Wher is all the ruffe of thy gloriousnes become?’, Latimer, 2nd Serm. bef. Edw. VI (ed. Arber, 49); excitement, passion, fury, Golding, Metam. xiii. 296 (NED.); Gascoigne (ed. Arber, ii. 94).
ruffin, the name of a fiend, Chester Plays, v. 166; the Devil, Fletcher, Beggar’s Bush, iii. 3 (Higgen); ‘I sweare by the Ruffin’, Brome, Jovial Crew, ii (Wks., ed. 1873, iii. 389).
ruffin, a ruffian, a man of brutal character, Plot, Staffordshire. 291; as adj., appropriate to a ruffian, ‘His ruffin raiment’, Spenser, F. Q. i. 4. 34.
ruffler, one of a class of vagabonds prevalent in the 16th century. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Moll). See Nares.
ruffmans, a cant term for a hedge. Middleton, Roaring Girl, v. 1 (Trapdoor). See [darkmans].