ruffling

Webster's Dictionary (GCIDE)

1.To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle. [1913 Webster]

2.To furnish with ruffles; as, to ruffle a shirt. [1913 Webster]

3.To oughen or disturb the surface of; to make uneven by agitation or commotion. [1913 Webster]

The fantastic revelries . . . that so often ruffled the placid bosom of the Nile.— I. Taylor.[1913 Webster]

She smoothed the ruffled seas.— Dryden.[1913 Webster]

4.To erect in a ruff, as feathers. [1913 Webster]

[the swan] ruffles her pure cold plume.— Tennyson.[1913 Webster]

5.(Mil.) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum. [1913 Webster]

6.To discompose; to agitate; to disturb. [1913 Webster]

These ruffle the tranquillity of the mind.— Sir W. Hamilton.[1913 Webster]

But, ever after, the small violence done Rankled in him and ruffled all his heart.— Tennyson.[1913 Webster]

7.To throw into disorder or confusion. [1913 Webster]

Where best He might the ruffled foe infest.— Hudibras.[1913 Webster]

8.To throw together in a disorderly manner. [R.] [1913 Webster]

I ruffled up falen leaves in heap.— Chapman[1913 Webster]

To ruffle the feathers of, to exite the resentment of; to irritate. [1913 Webster]