From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishruffruff /rʌf/ noun [countable] 1 DCCa stiff circular white collar, worn in the 16th century2 HBBa circle of feathers or fur around the neck of an animal or bird
Examples from the Corpus
ruff• Ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff ruff!• He was a stout man with a bald crown round which a ruff of brown hair grew thickly.• No Elizabethan dandy ever sported a finer ruff.• Seven ruff, without as yet their elaborate courtship adornments, fed at the northern tip of a tyke.• These actions cause the eye, beak and face to vanish beneath the shaggy white ruff.Origin ruff (1500-1600) Probably from → RUFFLE1 