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.
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(obsolete, UK, thieves) Woods, hedges or bushes.
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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.
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