toruffle
Appearance
English
[edit]Etymology
[edit]Pronunciation
[edit]- IPA(key): /təˈɹʌfəl/
Audio (Southern England): (file)
Verb
[edit]toruffle (third-person singular simple present toruffles, present participle toruffling, simple past and past participle toruffled)
- (transitive, archaic) To ruffle excessively, to the degree of causing something to lose its proper form or shape; ruffle up.
- 1634 October 9 (first performance), [John Milton], edited by H[enry] Lawes, A Maske Presented at Ludlow Castle, 1634: […] [Comus], London: […] [Augustine Matthews] for Hvmphrey Robinson, […], published 1637, →OCLC; reprinted as Comus: […] (Dodd, Mead & Company’s Facsimile Reprints of Rare Books; Literature Series; no. I), New York, N.Y.: Dodd, Mead & Company, 1903, →OCLC:
- She plumes her feathers, and lets grow her wings / That in the various bustle of resort / Were all toruffl'd, and sometimes impair'd.