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Ruffle vs Skirt - What's the difference?

ruffle | skirt |

As verbs the difference between ruffle and skirt

is that ruffle is while skirt is to be on or form the border of.

As a noun skirt is

an article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower part of the body.

ruffle

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • Any gathered or curled strip of fabric added as trim or decoration.(w)
    • ''She loved the dress with the lace ruffle at the hem.
  • *
    • 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.
  • Disturbance; agitation; commotion.
    • to put the mind in a ruffle
  • (military) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruff.
  • (zoology) The connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur .

    • Synonyms

    * (strip of fabric) frill, furbelow

    Verb

    (ruffl)
  • To make a ruffle in; to curl or flute, as an edge of fabric.
    • Ruffle the end of the cuff.
  • To disturb; especially, to cause to flutter.
    • The wind ruffled the papers.
    Her sudden volley of insults ruffled his composure.
  • * I. Taylor
    • the fantastic revelries that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile
  • * Sir W. Hamilton
    • These ruffle the tranquillity of the mind.
  • * Dryden
    • She smoothed the ruffled seas.
  • * Tennyson
    • But, ever after, the small violence done / Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart.
  • To grow rough, boisterous, or turbulent.
  • * Shakespeare
    • The night comes on, and the bleak winds / Do sorely ruffle .
  • To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter.
  • * Dryden
    • On his right shoulder his thick mane reclined, / Ruffles at speed, and dances in the wind.
  • To be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger.
  • * Francis Bacon
    • They would ruffle with jurors.
  • * Sir Walter Scott
    • gallants who ruffled in silk and embroidery
  • To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle.
  • To erect in a ruff, as feathers.
  • * Tennyson
    • [The swan] ruffles her pure cold plume.
  • (military) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
  • To throw together in a disorderly manner.
  • * Chapman
    • I ruffled up fallen leaves in heap.

    Derived terms

    * ruffly

    skirt

    English

    (wikipedia skirt)

    Noun

    (en noun)
  • An article of clothing, usually worn by women and girls, that hangs from the waist and covers the lower part of the body.
  • * , The Purple Dress :
    • "I like purple best," said Maida. "And old Schlegel has promised to make it for $8. It's going to be lovely. I'm going to have a plaited skirt and a blouse coat trimmed with a band of galloon under a white cloth collar with two rows of—"
  • The part of a dress or robe that hangs below the waist.
  • * 1885 , , The Science of Dress in Theory and Practice , Chapter XI:
    • The petticoats and skirts ordinarily worn are decidedly the heaviest part of the dress ; hence it is necessary that some reform should be effected in these.
  • A loose edging to any part of a dress.
  • * Addison
    • A narrow lace, or a small skirt of ruffled linen, which runs along the upper part of the stays before, and crosses the breast, being a part of the tucker, is called the modesty piece.
  • A petticoat.
  • (pejorative, slang) A woman.
  • * 1931 , , Alleys of Peril :
    • "Mate," said the Cockney, after we'd finished about half the bottle, "it comes to me that we're a couple o' blightin' idjits to be workin' for a skirt ."
    "What d'ya mean?" I asked, taking a pull at the bottle.
    "Well, 'ere's us, two red-blooded 'e-men, takin' orders from a lousy little frail, 'andin' the swag h'over to 'er, and takin' wot she warnts to 'and us, w'en we could 'ave the 'ole lot. Take this job 'ere now--"
  • (UK, colloquial) Women collectively, in a sexual context.
  • (UK, colloquial) Sexual intercourse with a woman.
  • Border; edge; margin; extreme part of anything.
  • * Shakespeare
    • Here in the skirts of the forest.
  • The diaphragm, or midriff, in animals.
    • (Dunglison)

    Usage notes

    * (article of clothing) It was formerly common to speak of “skirts” (plural) rather than “a skirt”. In some cases this served to emphasize an array of skirts of underskirts, or of pleats and folds in a single skirt; in other cases it made little or no difference in meaning.

    Derived terms

    * fender skirt * hobble skirt * mermaid skirt * miniskirt * pencil skirt * prairie skirt * rah-rah skirt * skirt chaser * skirted * skirtless * unskirted

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To be on or form the border of.
    • The plain was skirted by rows of trees.
  • To move around or along the border of; to avoid the center of.
  • * 1922 , (Virginia Woolf), (w, Jacob's Room) Chapter 1
    • An enormous man and woman (it was early-closing day) were stretched motionless, with their heads on pocket-handkerchiefs, side by side, within a few feet of the sea, while two or three gulls gracefully skirted the incoming waves, and settled near their boots.
  • * {{quote-magazine, date=2013-06-01, volume=407, issue=8838
    • , page=13 (Technology Quarterly), magazine=(The Economist) , title= Ideas coming down the track , passage=A “moving platform” scheme
  • To cover with a skirt; to surround.
  • * Milton
    • skirted his loins and thighs with downy gold

    Related terms

    * skirting-board * outskirt

    Anagrams

    * 1000 English basic words