toruffle

English

Etymology

From to- +‎ ruffle.

Pronunciation
  • IPA(key): /təˈɹʌfəl/
    • Audio (UK)(file)

Verb

toruffle (third-person singular simple present toruffles, present participle toruffling, simple past and past participle toruffled)

  1. (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], H[enry] Lawes, editor, 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.
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