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Worry vs Ruffle - What's the difference?

worry | ruffle | Related terms |

In transitive terms the difference between worry and ruffle

is that worry is to cause concern or anxiety while ruffle is to disturb; especially, to cause to flutter.

In intransitive terms the difference between worry and ruffle

is that worry is to be troubled, to give way to mental anxiety while ruffle is to be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger.

worry

English

Verb

(en-verb)
  • To seize or shake by the throat, especially of a dog or wolf.
    • Your dog’s been worrying sheep again.
  • To harass; to irritate or distress.
    • The President was worried into military action by persistent advisors.
  • Disturb the peace of mind of; afflict with mental agitation or distress.
    • Your tone of voice worries me.
  • To be troubled, to give way to mental anxiety.
    • Stop worrying about your test, it’ll be fine.
  • (transitive, obsolete, except in Scots) To strangle.
  • To cause concern or anxiety.
  • *{{quote-magazine, date=2013-08-10, volume=408, issue=8848, magazine=(The Economist)
    • , title= Can China clean up fast enough? , passage=That worries the government, which fears that environmental activism could become the foundation for more general political opposition.}}

    Synonyms

    * (trouble mentally) fret

    Noun

    (worries)
  • A strong feeling of anxiety.
  • :
  • An instance or cause of such a feeling.
  • :

    • Derived terms

    * worried * worrisome

    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