ruse

Noun

ruse (countable and uncountable, plural ruses)

1. (archaic, countable, often, rare) A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
   • The boar was evidently most averse to leave the field in which he had spent so may pleasant hours of uninterrupted rest; […] He turned sharply to one flank; he stopped dead, and went away in the opposite direction as he heard the hunters gallop past; every ruse he tried, but tried in vain.1867, J. T. Newall, chapter XVII, in Hog Hunting in the East, and Other Sports, London: Tinsley Brothers, […], →OCLC, pages 367–368
2. (broadly, countable) An action intended to deceive; a trick.
   • Near-synonyms: ploy, stratagem, artifice
   • It must be borne in mind that huntsmen sometimes make casts which they know must lose them their fox: […] At the same time, it would be bad policy to explain these little matters: some parties, who are not sufficiently acquainted with the management of hounds, might be discontented, whereas by such...1839 November, “Cecil”, “Observations on Hunting, with Comparisons of the Usages of the Past and Present Days”, in The Sporting Magazine, or Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf, the...

   Synonyms:

   ploy, stratagem, artifice

3. (uncountable) Cunning, guile, trickery.
   • [H]e [Bertrand du Guesclin] had great natural cunning, that half-savage quality, was full of ruse and trick in war, he was contemptuous towards the high noblesse, but gentle to the poor, and generous to his friends.1873, G[eorge] W[illiam] Kitchin, “The Deeds of Charles V, ‘the Wise.’ a.d. 1360–1380.”, in A History of France down to the Year 1453 (Clarendon Press Series), Oxford: At the University Press, →OCLC...
   • A French privateer operating under an English commission raided Massacre Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay in 1710, robbing its warehouse of thousands of deerskins and other pelts, as well as of naval stores. They took the small place by ruse.2005, Benerson Little, “Houses, Towns, and Cities Sacked: The Sea Rover as a Soldier”, in The Sea Rover’s Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630–1730, Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, →ISBN...

Verb

ruse (third-person singular simple present ruses, present participle rusing, simple past and past participle rused)

1. (intransitive) To deceive or trick using a ruse.
   • Anyway, no man can escape the woman he considers too much rused for him: tear her down or run away toward her if he can't meet her head-and-hind on.1956, Herbert Gold, “Then Visited from the Jungle to Jungles”, in The Man who was Not with It, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC; republished as The Man who was Not with It (Second...
   • And, in a way, s/he is already told, and what s/he him/herself is telling will not undo the fact that somewhere else s/he is told, but it will "ruse" with this; it will offer a variant in the form and even in the story.1985, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean-Loup Thébald, translated by Wlad Godzich, Just Gaming (Theory and History of Literature; 20), Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, published 1999...
2. (archaic, intransitive, rare) Of an animal: to turn or double back to elude hunters or their hunting dogs.
   • And he [the hart] fleeth then mightily and far from the hounds, that is to say he hath gone a great way from them, then he will go into the stank, and will soil therein once or twice in all the stank and then he will come out again by the same way that he went in, and then he shall ruse again the...c. 1425, Edward, Second Duke of York [i.e., Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York], “Of the Hart and His Nature”, in W[illia]m A[dolf] Baillie-Grohman, F[lorence] Baillie-Grohman, editors, The Master...
   • With these whelps [the hunting dogs] who know the way but are in danger of being baffled by the rusing stag, the hunter sends the reliable old harre (perseverance). He is indispensable, as he has often confronted the stag at bay.1974, Marcelle Thiébaux, “Medieval Allegories of the Love Chase”, in The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature, Ithaca, N.Y.; London: Cornell University Press, published 2014, →ISBN, page 190

Proper noun (1) capitalized: Ruse

IPA/ˈɹuːseɪ/

Ruse

1. A suburb of Sydney in the Campbelltown council area, New South Wales, Australia.
2. A city in northeastern Bulgaria.
3. A municipality of Ruse Province, Bulgaria.
4. A province in Bulgaria.

Proper noun (2) capitalized: Ruse

IPA/ˈɹuːz/

Ruse

1. A surname.
2. A suburb in the City of Campbelltown, near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, named after James Ruse.