Ruff vs Riff - What's the difference?
ruff | riff |
A gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia, Philomachus pugnax .
# A male of the species. (The female is a reeve).
a small freshwater fish; a pope.
A circular frill or ruffle on a garment, especially a starched, fluted frill at the neck in Elizabethan and Jacobean England.
*
Anything formed with plaits or flutings, like the frill.
* (rfdate) Alexander Pope
(obsolete) An exhibition of pride or haughtiness.
* (rfdate) L'Estrange
(obsolete) Wanton or tumultuous procedure or conduct.
* (rfdate) Latimer
(military) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruffle.
(engineering) A collar on a shaft or other piece to prevent endwise motion.
A set of lengthened or otherwise modified feathers on or around the neck of a bird.
To ruffle; to disorder.
(military) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
(hawking) To hit (the prey) without fixing it.
(colloquial)
A repeated instrumental melody line in a song.
* {{quote-news
, year=2009
, date=November 27
, author=
, title=Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has 'best guitar riff'
, work=BBC
A clever or witty remark.
A variation on something.
*2012 , The Economist,
A spoof
* 26 June 2014 , A.A Dowd, AV Club Paul Rudd and Amy Poehler spoof rom-com clichés in They Came Together [http://www.avclub.com/review/paul-rudd-and-amy-poehler-spoof-rom-com-cliches-th-206220]
To improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.
As nouns the difference between ruff and riff
is that ruff is a gregarious, medium-sized wading bird of Eurasia, Philomachus pugnax while riff is a repeated instrumental melody line in a song.As verbs the difference between ruff and riff
is that ruff is to ruffle; to disorder while riff is to improvise in the performance or practice of an art, especially by expanding on or making novel use of traditional themes.As an adjective ruff
is an alternative spelling of lang=en.As an interjection ruff
is the bark of a dog; woof.ruff
English
Etymology 1
A shortening of (ruffle)Noun
(en noun)- I reared this flower; / Soft on the paper ruff its leaves I spread.
- 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!
- to ruffle it out in a riotous ruff
Verb
(en verb)- (Spenser)
Etymology 2
Synonyms
*Derived terms
* overruff * underruffSee also
*Etymology 3
Adjective
(er)Etymology 4
Onomatopoeic. English onomatopoeiasriff
English
Noun
(en noun)citation, page= , passage=Jimi Hendrix's Voodoo Child has been named the greatest guitar riff of all time, 41 years after it was recorded, in a poll by website Music Radar.}}
London Skyline: Tower Power
- Both the Orbit and the Pinnacle are riffs on an idea sketched out in 1917 by Vladimir Tatlin for a monument to international communism.
- The creative team has experience with spoofing: Both Rudd and Poehler had parts in Wain’s Wet Hot American Summer, a hysterically irreverent riff on ’80s summer-camp comedies.