different between ruffle vs fringe

English

Etymology

From Middle English ruffelen, perhaps from Old Norse hrufla (“to graze, scratch”) or Middle Low German ruffelen (“to wrinkle, curl”). Further origin unknown. Related to Middle Dutch ruyffelen, German Low German ruffeln. See English ruff.

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /???f?l/
• Rhymes: -?f?l

Noun

ruffle (plural ruffles)

1. Any gathered or curled strip of fabric added as trim or decoration.
2. Disturbance; agitation; commotion.

3. (military) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, quieter than a roll; a ruff.
4. (zoology) The connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur.

Synonyms

• (strip of fabric): frill, furbelow

Translations

Verb

ruffle (third-person singular simple present ruffles, present participle ruffling, simple past and past participle ruffled)

1. (transitive) To make a ruffle in; to curl or flute, as an edge of fabric.

2. (transitive) To disturb; especially, to cause to flutter.
   • 1832, Isaac Taylor, Saturday Evening

     the fantastic revelries […] that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile

   • 1860, Sir William Hamilton, Sir William Hamilton, 9th Baronet

     These ruffle the tranquillity of the mind.

   • 1859, Alfred Tennyson, Guinevere
3. (intransitive) To grow rough, boisterous, or turbulent.
4. (intransitive) To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter.
5. (intransitive) To be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger.
6. To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle.
7. To erect in a ruff, as feathers.
   • 1832, Alfred Tennyson, The Palace of Art
8. (military) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
9. To throw together in a disorderly manner.

Translations

Derived terms

• rufflement
• ruffler
• ruffle some feathers
• ruffle up
• ruffly
• unruffled

References

Anagrams

• Fulfer, luffer

English

Etymology

From Middle English frenge, from Old French frenge, from Vulgar Latin *frimbia, metathesis of Latin fimbriae (“fibers, threads, fringe”, plural). (Cognates include German Franse and Danish frynse.) Doublet of fimbria.

Pronunciation

• (General American, Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /f??nd?/
• Rhymes: -?nd?

Noun

fringe (plural fringes)

1. A decorative border.

   the fringe of a picture

2. A marginal or peripheral part.
   • 1673, Jeremy Taylor, Heniaytos: A Course of Sermons for All the Sundays of the Year […]

     the confines of grace and the fringes of repentance
3. Those members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views.
4. The periphery of a town or city (or other area).
5. (Britain) Synonym of bangs: hair hanging over the forehead, especially a hairstyle where it is cut straight across.

   Her fringe is so long it covers her eyes.

   • 1915, W. Somerset Maugham, Of Human Bondage

     In a few minutes Mrs. Athelny appeared. She had taken her hair out of the curling pins and now wore an elaborate fringe.

   • “No.” Astrid?s tone dismissed Sophie and the fringe as she galloped off to a new topic.

   • 2009, Geraldine Biddle-Perry, Sarah Cheang, Hair: Styling, Culture and Fashion, page 231,

     Set against the seductive visual and textual imagery of these soft-focus fantasy worlds, the stock list details offer the reader a very real solution to achieving the look themselves, ‘Hair, including coloured fringes (obtainable from Joseph, £3.50) by Paul Nix’ (Baker 1972a: 68).

6. (physics) A light or dark band formed by the diffraction of light.

   interference fringe

7. Non-mainstream theatre.

   The Fringe; Edinburgh Fringe; Adelaide Fringe

8. (botany) The peristome or fringe-like appendage of the capsules of most mosses.
9. (golf) The area around the green
10. (Australia) Used attributively with reference to Aboriginal people living on the edge of towns etc.
    • 2006, Alexis Wright, Carpentaria, Giramondo 2012, p. 20:

      All the fringe people thought it was such a good house, ingenious in fact, and erected similar makeshift housing for themselves.

11. (television, radio) A daypart that precedes or follows prime time.

Synonyms

• (members of a political party, or any social group, holding unorthodox views): fringe group
• (periphery of a town or city): outskirts

Derived terms

Translations

Adjective

fringe (not comparable)

1. Outside the mainstream.

Synonyms

• alternative
• nonmainstream

Translations

Verb

fringe (third-person singular simple present fringes, present participle fringing, simple past and past participle fringed)

1. (transitive) To decorate with fringe.
2. (transitive) To serve as a fringe.

Translations

Anagrams

• Finger, finger