ˈruffianize, v.
[f. ruffian n.]
† 1. intr. To play the ruffian or pander. Obs.—0
| 1611 Cotgr., Ruffienner, to Ruffianize, to pandarize it; make or set leacherous matches. |
2. trans. To render ruffianly in character.
| 1833 Southey in Life (1850) VI. 220 The portrait prefixed to this book seems intentionally to have radicalised, or rather ruffianised, a countenance which had no cut-throat expression at that time. 1872 W. Minto Eng. Prose Lit. i. i. 55 He objected to the Reform Bill of 1832, that it had ruffianised Parliament. |