▪ I. † ˈruffy1 Obs. Chiefly Sc.
Also 6 ruffie, roofye, pl. ruffeis.
[var. of Ruffin1, and of ruffin ruffian n.]
1. A devil or fiend. Cf. Ruffin1 1.
| ? a 1500 Rowlis Cursing 133 Ruffy Tasker with his flaill Sall beit thame all fra top to taill. [See also ragman1 1.] 1528 Lyndesay Dreme 285 Sum repentit neuer in thare lyue: Quhairfor, but reuth tha ruffeis did thame ryue. 1599 Harsnet Discoverie 308 One of them saying his name was Roofye—‘Thou lyest,’ quoth M. Darrell, ‘that name is common to all spirits’. |
b. One impersonating a fiend.
| 1502 Acc. Ld. High Treas. Scot. II. 350 Item, be the Kingis command, to Sanct Nicholais beschop, iij Franch crounis... Item, to the deblatis and ruffyis, vij s. 1507 Ibid. IV. 87 To Sanct Nicholais..xxviij s. To his ruffyis, ix s. |
2. A ruffian.
| 1500–20 Dunbar Poems lx. 42 Bot quhow is he content, or nocht,..Wpone this ruffie to remord? 1570 Sat. Poems Reform. xxi. 23 Thay Ruffyis, be thay neuer sa ryfe, Thay get na helpe of France. 1572 Ibid. xxxii. 81 Thay reuthles Ruffeis but reuth with crueltie Did slay my husband. |
▪ II. ˈruffy2 Sc. rare.
[Cf. ruff n.7 and roughy1.]
(See quots. 1808 and 1825.)
| 1793 Stat. Acc. Scotl. IX. 328 When the goodman of the house made family worship, they lighted a ruffy, to enable him to read the psalm..before he prayed. 1808 Jamieson, Ruffy, a wick clogged with tallow, instead of being dipped. 1825 ― Suppl., Ruffy,..the blaze or torch used in fishing by night with the Lister. |
▪ III. ruffy
variant of roughy2.