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Torment vs Ruffle - What's the difference?

torment | ruffle | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between torment and ruffle

is that torment is to cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex but weaker than to torture. while ruffle is to disturb; especially, to cause to flutter.

torment

English

Noun

(en noun)
  • (obsolete) A catapult or other kind of war-engine.
  • Torture, originally as inflicted by an instrument of torture.
  • Any extreme pain, anguish or misery, either physical or mental.
    • He was bitter from the torments of the divorce system.
  • * Bible, Matthew iv. 24
    • They brought unto him all sick people that were taken with divers diseases and torments .

    Synonyms

    * See also

    Derived terms

    * tormentous

    Verb

    (en verb)
  • To cause severe suffering to (stronger than to vex'' but weaker than ''to torture. )
    • The child tormented the flies by pulling their wings off.
  • * 2013 , Phil McNulty, " Man City 4-1 Man Utd", BBC Sport , 22 September 2013:
    • Moyes, who never won a derby at Liverpool in 11 years as Everton manager, did not find the Etihad any more forgiving as City picked United apart in midfield, where Toure looked in a different class to United's £27.5m new boy Marouane Fellaini, and in defence as Aguero tormented Nemanja Vidic and Rio Ferdinand.

    Derived terms

    * tormentor

    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