ruffmans
Obsolete English thieves' cant for woods, hedges, or bushy terrain — the kind of rough countryside useful for hiding, ambushing travellers, or evading pursuit.
Etymology timeline
Born ~1611 · no dated citations yetDefinitions
Obsolete English thieves' cant for woods, hedges, or bushy terrain — the kind of rough countryside useful for hiding, ambushing travellers, or evading pursuit. Documented in 16th and 17th century canting dictionaries. Part of the rich vocabulary of Elizabethan and Jacobean criminal argot.
They lay in the ruffmans until the road was clear.
Comments
(obsolete, UK, thieves) Woods, hedges or bushes.
Comments
Used in
Have a better definition?
Add your own interpretation of "ruffmans".
🇬🇧About British & Irish slang slang
UK and Irish slang — Cockney, Scouse, Geordie, Yorkshire, Glaswegian, Brummie, Welsh, West Country, plus Irish English. Centuries of regional dialects feeding into modern British and Irish street talk.
See all British & Irish slang slang on Slangora.
Tags
Other words near "ruffmans" (R)
Browse all slang words starting with R.
Related terms
People also read
Semantically related
- roughscuff65%
(US, informal) The lowest class of people; the rabble.
- shruff64%
(obsolete, UK, dialect) Light, dry wood, or material used for fuel.
- rugged63%
Past participle of 'rug' (rug-pull). To be defrauded by a project that abruptly disappears with investor funds. Crypto-native but spread to any platform shutdown without warning.
- cruff62%
(Caribbean) , rough, uncouth, tough.