noun
1. a projecting starched frill worn around the neck, characteristic of Elizabethan and Jacobean costume
2. a projecting or conspicuously colored ring of feathers or hair around the neck of a bird or mammal
3. ( pl. same or ruffs ) a northern Eurasian wading bird, the male of which has a large variously colored ruff and ear tufts in the breeding season, used in display
