ruffian

«ruffian» in Mova's school dictionary: A rough, violent or lawless person, especially a man or a… — its meaning for a pupil, its sense in the lessons and examples.

part of speech

noun (a ruffian, ruffians)

meaning for a pupil

A rough, violent or lawless person, especially a man or a boy who causes trouble. tree →

sense in the lessons

An old-fashioned word in stories and history: highwaymen, pirates and street gangs are ruffians. In The Wind in the Willows the stoats and weasels who take over Toad Hall are called ruffians, and Toad himself is called a ruffian by the court. Today grandparents use it half-jokingly for noisy boys.

examples

• A gang of ruffians stopped the coach on the road. tree →
• The weasels and stoats were a band of ruffians. tree →
• «You young ruffians, get off my lawn!» shouted the old man. tree →
• The magistrate called Toad a hardened ruffian. tree →
• Ruffians attacked travellers in the Middle Ages. tree →
• The pirates were cruel ruffians. tree →
• The ruffians were appropriately named Rawbones and Woudkill. tree →

note

Plural: ruffians. Adjective: ruffianly (rare). Do not confuse with «ruffle» (to mess up hair or feathers).

Trees and pragmatics

Every meaning and example of «ruffian» parsed by Mova, each sentence with its dependency tree and frames.