Word.ws English Dictionary

ruffle feathers

ruffle feathers is the alternative form of ruffle some feathers.

Meaning of ruffle some feathers

Verb

ruffle some feathers (third-person singular simple present ruffles some feathers, present participle ruffling some feathers, simple past and past participle ruffled some feathers)

  1. (figuratively, informal) To cause a disturbance; to arouse resentment, anger, or concern.
    • Any frank discussion of politics is sure to ruffle some feathers.

Forms of ruffle feathers

third-person singular presentruffles feathers
present participleruffling feathers
past participleruffled feathers
pastruffled feathers

Questions about ruffle feathers

What is ruffle feathers the alternative form of?
Ruffle feathers is the alternative form of ruffle some feathers.

Words near ruffle feathers in the dictionary

  1. Ruffinos
  2. ruffins
  3. ruffle
  4. ruffle a few feathers
  5. ruffle any feathers
  6. ruffle feathers
  7. ruffle some feathers
  8. ruffle someone's feathers
  9. ruffle up
  10. ruffleable
  11. ruffled

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ruffle feathers (page history and authors); ruffle some feathers (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this entry: “ruffle feathers.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/ruffle_feathers. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.