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s.] he [her husband] is no sooner abroad than she is instantly at home, reveling with her ruffians. Bp. Reynolds.

Ruffians, collectively; a body of ruffians. "The vilest ruffianage." Sir F. Palgrave.

Having the qualities or manners of a ruffian; ruffianly.

Ruffianly. Fulke.

Like a ruffian; bold in crimes; characteristic of a ruffian; violent; brutal.

Ruffianly. [Obs.] Chapman.

r as a person to be tried. We must all appear before the judgment seat. * Cor. v. 10. One ruffian escaped because no prosecutor dared to appear. Macaulay.

In the manner of or resembling a blackguard; abusive; scurrilous; ruffianly.

lent gust of wind. And see where surly Winter passes off, Far to the north, and calls his ruffian blasts; His blasts obey, and quit the howling hill. Thomson.

A ruffian; a bravo; a destroyer. [Obs.]

s, furious man; a person urged by furious passions, and regardless of consequence; a wild ruffian.

A bully; a bravo; a ruffian; an assassin. [Obs.] Milton.

Resembling a hector; blustering; insolent; taunting. "Hectorly, ruffianlike swaggering or huffing." Barrow.

A ruffian; one who hounds, or spies upon, another; app. esp. to the members of certain alleged societies among the Chinese. [U. S.]

One of certain ruffians who infested the streets of London in the time of Addison, and took the name from the Mohawk Indians. [Slang] Spectator. Macaulay.

l . . . It is not to be wondered at that the word rapidly became a synonym for everything ruffianly and brutal. Earle.

One who engages in rows, or noisy quarrels; a ruffianly fellow. M. Arnold.

One who ruffles; a swaggerer; a bully; a ruffian. Assaults, if not murders, done at his own doors by that crew of rufflers. Milton.

laugh against her will. Sir H. Wotton. The scornful, ferocious, sardonic grin of a bloody ruffian. Burke. Sardonic grin or laugh, an old medical term for a spasmodic affection of the muscles of the face, giving it an appearance of laughter.

& p. p. of Sling. Slung shot, a metal ball of small size, with a string attached, used by ruffians for striking.