ruffle up

1. 1.

   disturb the smoothness of

   “ruffle the surface of the water”

   Synonymsrufflerumplemess up

   Broaderdisarrange

Questions about ruffle up

What does ruffle up mean?

ruffle up means "disturb the smoothness of".

What is another word for ruffle up?

Close synonyms include ruffle, rumple, mess up. Each sense on this page lists its own synonyms, because a word with several meanings rarely has one substitute that works for all of them.

Is ruffle up a common word?

ruffle up is banded "Uncommon" — turns up in careful writing rather than conversation. The band comes from how often the word appears in a large corpus of everyday English, not from an editor's impression.