RUFF n.
A limicoline bird of Europe and Asia (Pavoncella, or Philommachus, pugnax) allied to the sandpipers. The males during the breeding season have a large ruff of erectile feathers, variable in their colors, on the neck, and yellowish naked tubercles on the face. They are polygamous, and are noted for their pugnacity in th…
SOUND n.
ense and not sound . . . must be the principle. Locke. Sound boarding, boards for holding pugging, placed in partitions of under floors in order to deaden sounds. -- Sound bow, in a series of transverse sections of a bell, that segment against which the clapper strikes, being the part which is most efficacious in prod…
SPORTING a.
s, and the like. -- Sporting man, one who practices field sports; also, a horse racer, a pugilist, a gambler, or the like. -- Sporting plant (Bot.), a plant in which a single bud or offset suddenly assumes a new, and sometimes very different, character from that of the rest of the plant. Darwin.