ruffianly en · ADJ · etymology 1
Etymology
From ruffian + -ly.
Meanings
-
Like or having the qualities of a ruffian.
Joseph mumbled indistinctly in the depths of the cellar; but, gave no intimation of ascending; so, his master dived down to him, leaving me vis-à-vis the ruffianly bitch, and a pair of grim, shaggy sheep dogs, who shared with her a jealous guardianship over all my movements.
1847 December, Ellis Bell [pseudonym; Emily Brontë], chapter I, in Wuthering Heights: […], volume I, London: Thomas Cautley Newby, […], →OCLC, page 10:By his side padded a big ruffianly collie, and he led by a string a miserable-looking terrier, at which the collie now and then snapped viciously.
1930 July, John Buchan, “The First Day of the Hegira—The Inn at Watermeeting”, in Castle Gay, Boston, Mass.; New York, N.Y.: Houghton Mifflin Company; Cambridge, Mass.: The Riverside Press, →OCLC, page 140:One righteous man who reverences the Gods Shall shipmate be with a ruffianly crew […]
1922, “The Seven against Thebes”, in Geoffrey Montagu Cookson, transl., Four Plays of Aeschylus, page 136:
Forms
| Spelling | Features | Labels | Source |
|---|---|---|---|
| most ruffianly | Degree=Sup | lexicographic | |
| more ruffianly | Degree=Cmp | lexicographic |