Word.ws English Dictionary

unruffling

unruffling is the present participle and gerund of unruffle.

Meaning of unruffle

Verb

unruffle (third-person singular simple present unruffles, present participle unruffling, simple past and past participle unruffled)

  1. (transitive) To remove ruffles from; to make smooth.
  2. (transitive) To calm or soothe (a person).
  3. (intransitive) To calm down.
    • [The old man] stood grinning like a gnome, obviously delighted to watch me flush and ruffle and then gradually unflush and unruffle.2000, Robert Grant, The Gift of Lack: Short Stories and Other Writings, page 73

Adjective

unruffling (comparative more unruffling, superlative most unruffling)

  1. Not creating ruffles or stress.
    • The fire escapes had been transformed into 108-square-foot terraces, and there was a general feeling of understatement and an unusual sense of being in a civilized, unruffling place.2007 October 28, Suzanne Slesin, “Where Understatement Is the Watchword”, in New York Times

Forms of unruffling

comparativemore unruffling
superlativemost unruffling

Questions about unruffling

What does unruffling mean?
Unruffling means not creating ruffles or stress.
What is unruffling the present participle and gerund of?
Unruffling is the present participle and gerund of unruffle.
What part of speech is unruffling?
Unruffling is an adjective.

Words near unruffling in the dictionary

  1. unrufflable
  2. unruffle
  3. unruffled
  4. unruffledness
  5. unruffles
  6. unruffling
  7. unrug
  8. unrugged
  9. unruggedized
  10. unrugging
  11. unrugs

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: unruffling (page history and authors); unruffle (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: “unruffling.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/unruffling. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.