ruffianly

English

Etymology

From ruffian +‎ -ly.

Adjective

ruffianly (comparative more ruffianly, superlative most ruffianly)

1. Like or having the qualities of a ruffian. [from 16th c.]
   • 1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 10:

     Joseph mumbled indistinctly in the depths of the cellar; but, gave no intimation of ascending; so, his master dived down to him, leaving me vis-à-vis the ruffianly bitch, and a pair of grim, shaggy sheep dogs, who shared with her a jealous guardianship over all my movements.

   • 1922, “The Seven against Thebes”, in Geoffrey Montagu Cookson, transl., Four Plays of Aeschylus, page 136:

     One righteous man who reverences the Gods
     Shall shipmate be with a ruffianly crew […]

   • 1930 July, John Buchan, “The First Day of the Hegira—The Inn at Watermeeting”, in Castle Gay, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →OCLC, page 140:

     By his side padded a big ruffianly collie, and he led by a string a miserable-looking terrier, at which the collie now and then snapped viciously.

Translations

like or having the qualities of a ruffian

Adverb

ruffianly (comparative more ruffianly, superlative most ruffianly)

1. In the manner of a ruffian.

Translations

in the manner of a ruffian