ruck

Middle English ruke

• (UK) IPA^(key): /ɹʌk/

• Audio (AU)

  (file)

• Rhymes: -ʌk

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A throng or crowd of people or things; a mass, a pack. [from 16th c.]
   • 1873, Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux, Chapter 16:

     Dandolo was constantly in the ditch, sometimes lying with his side against the bank, and had now been so hustled and driven that, had he been on the other side, he would have had no breath left to carry his rider, even in the ruck of the hunt.

   • 1914, Booth Tarkington, Penrod, Chapter 23:

     At last, out of the ruck rose Verman, disfigured and maniacal. With a wild eye he looked about him for his trusty rake; but Penrod, in horror, had long since thrown the rake out into the yard.

2. (Australian Rules Football) Contesting a bounce or ball up; used appositionally in "ruck contest". Rucks also used collectively either of ruckmen or of ruckmen and ruck rovers, and occasionally used in place of "followers" (including rovers too). [from 19th c.]
3. (rugby union) The situation formed when a player carrying the ball is brought to the ground and one or more members of each side are engaged above the ball, trying to win possession of it; a loose scrum. [from 20th c.]
4. The common mass of people or things; the ordinary ranks. [from 19th c.]
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, Far from the Madding Crowd:

     "He is well born." "His being higher in learning and birth than the ruck o' soldiers is anything but a proof of his worth. It shows his course to be down'ard."

   • 1911, Saki, ‘Tobermory’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     ‘Here and there among cats one comes across an outstanding superior intellect, just as one does among the ruck of human beings [...].’

• maul
• scrum

ruck (third-person singular simple present rucks, present participle rucking, simple past and past participle rucked)

1. (obsolete, transitive) To act as a ruckman in a stoppage in Australian Rules football.
2. (transitive, rugby union) To contest the possession of the ball in a ruck.

1780, from Old Norse hrukka (“wrinkle, crease”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkijō, *hrunkitō (“fold, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”). Akin to Icelandic hrukka (“wrinkle, crease, ruck”), Old High German runza (“fold, wrinkle, crease”), German Runzel (“wrinkle”), Middle Dutch ronse (“frown”). More at frounce. Possibly related to Irish roc.

ruck (third-person singular simple present rucks, present participle rucking, simple past and past participle rucked)

1. (transitive) To crease or fold.
   • 1956, C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Collins, 1998, Chapter 8,

     Puzzle begged very hard to have the lion-skin taken off him. He said it was too hot and the way it was rucked up on his back was uncomfortable […]

   • 1959, Peter De Vries, The Tents of Wickedness, p. 28,

     "What, exactly, happened down cellar?" Appleyard asked, straightening with his heel a rucked rug.

   • 1989, Carol Shields, "Block Out" in The Collected Stories, Random House Canada, 2004, p. 299,

     She wore long dangling earrings faced with mirrors, and white Bermuda shorts rucked back to reveal knees and thighs like waxed maple.

   • 2003, Nadine Gordimer, "L,U, C, I, E." in Loot and Other Stories, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, p. ,

     The army had a shooting range up there hidden in the chestnut forests, that was all; like a passing plane rucking the fabric of perfect silence, the shots brought all that shatters continuity in life, the violence of emotions, the trajectories of demands and contests of will.

2. (intransitive) To become folded.
   • 1917, Edith Wharton, Summer, Chapter 12.,

     "Will you come over now and try on your dress?" Ally asked, looking at her with wistful admiration. "I want to be sure the sleeves don't ruck up the same as they did yesterday."

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A crease, a wrinkle, a pucker, as on fabric.

Compare Danish ruge (“to brood, to hatch”).

ruck (third-person singular simple present rucks, present participle rucking, simple past and past participle rucked)

1. (Britain, dialectal, obsolete) To cower or huddle together; to squat; to sit, as a hen on eggs.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Gower to this entry?)

   (Can we find and add a quotation of South to this entry?)

ruck (plural rucks)

1. Obsolete form of roc.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Drayton to this entry?)

From German Rucksack (“backpack”); rücken (“to move, to push”).

ruck (plural rucks)

1. (slang, especially military) A rucksack; a large backpack.
   • 2007, Brandon Friedman, The War I Always Wanted: The Illusion of Glory →ISBN, page 57:

     Shah-e-Kot Valley, Afghanistan. March 2002. I strained to see over the soldiers in front of me. They were struggling to shuffle off the bird as quickly as they could. I dragged my ruck across the floor of the aircraft in my right hand.

   • July 5, 2013, Brad McLeod, Top 10 Ruck Marching Tips, , accessed 17 JUL 2015:

     "First of all – a “ruck” is nothing more than a backpack. So to ruck march, is to carry a heavy duty backpack on a hike (loaded with gear and supplies)."

   • 2015, Sean T. Smith, Wrath and Redemption →ISBN:

     Rocky was only five foot six and skinny as a February coyote, but he could hump an eighty pound ruck across twenty mountain miles […]

ruck (third-person singular simple present rucks, present participle rucking, simple past and past participle rucked)

1. To carry a backpack while hiking or marching.
   • 2015 June 16, Brandon Cole, Mount Vernon's Barnes to Compete in "Death Race", in the Posey County News, page 13:

     He started at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday as he began rucking to church. He changed his clothes, went to church and then began rucking again. That distance totaled about nine miles. Rucking is hiking with a military style backpack, filled with weight.

• rucksack
• backpack
• backpacking

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A small heifer.

• IPA^(key): /ʁœk/

ruck m (plural rucks)

1. (rugby) ruck