What does "ruse" mean?
A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
Ruse
/ɹuːz/ name, noun, verb
name, noun, verb ·Common ·High school level
Meaning at a glance
- Primary sense: A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
- Grammar: ruse is listed as name, noun, verb.
- Nearest alternatives: a device, art, artful dodge, artifice.
- Useful contrasts: honesty, openness, transparency.
- Usage evidence: All the sweet talk was just a ruse to get her into bed.
How to use "ruse"
- Start with the primary definition, then check the part of speech before placing the word in a sentence.
- Compare nearby synonyms to make sure "ruse" carries the exact meaning, tone, and strength you need.
- Use the example sentence as a context check. If your sentence uses the word differently, confirm that the grammar still fits.
Meaning check
- Does the word fit the sentence's grammar?
- Does it match the intended tone rather than only the dictionary definition?
- Would a simpler synonym be clearer for the reader?
- Is there enough surrounding context to prevent ambiguity?
Source and review context
This entry combines structured lexical data with WordToolSet review checks. Definitions, examples, synonyms, and usage notes may come from different source tables, so the page is designed to show evidence from more than one angle before you rely on "ruse" in a final draft.
If a word has several senses, prefer the sense that matches your sentence's grammar and surrounding context. A correct definition can still be the wrong choice when the sentence needs a different register, emphasis, or level of specificity.
Before you rely on this definition
Read the first definition as a starting point, then check the example, synonyms, and part of speech before treating "ruse" as the right word for your sentence.
If your draft is formal, technical, persuasive, or sensitive, compare "ruse" with a nearby alternative so the final choice matches both meaning and reader expectation.
Compare nearby meanings
- Use synonyms when you need a softer, stronger, simpler, or more specific word.
- Use antonyms to check the boundary of the meaning and avoid accidental contrast.
- Use the example sentence to confirm the word behaves naturally in context.
- Keep the original wording when a replacement adds complexity without improving precision.
Definition decision workflow
1. Identify the role
Check whether "ruse" is acting as name, noun, verb in your sentence. A definition is only useful when the grammar matches the way the word is being used.
2. Test the nearest option
Compare it with "a device" and other nearby choices to see whether the sentence needs a softer, stronger, or more familiar word.
3. Confirm with context
Use the example sentence below as an evidence check, then read your own sentence out loud to catch tone or rhythm problems.
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Final meaning check
Before publishing a sentence with "ruse", ask whether the word helps the reader understand the idea faster. A precise word should reduce confusion, not simply make the sentence look more polished.
When the definition, synonym evidence, and example context point in the same direction, the word is usually a safer choice. When they conflict, revise the sentence or choose a clearer alternative.
Definitions
Noun
- 1 A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs. archaic, countable, often, rare
"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."
- 2 a deceptive maneuver (especially to avoid capture) wordnet
- 3 An action intended to deceive; a trick. broadly, countable
"Near-synonyms: ploy, stratagem"
- 4 Cunning, guile, trickery. uncountable
"[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."
Verb
- 1 To deceive or trick using a ruse. intransitive
"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."
- 2 Of an animal: to turn or double back to elude hunters or their hunting dogs. archaic, intransitive, rare
"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 same way that he came (the length of) a bow shot or more, and then he shall ruse out of the way, for to stall or squatt to rest him, and that he doeth for he knoweth well that the hounds shall come by the fues [footing] into the stank where he was."
Proper Noun
- 1 A suburb of Sydney in the Campbelltown council area, New South Wales, Australia.
- 2 A surname.
- 3 A city in northeastern Bulgaria.
- 4 A suburb in the City of Campbelltown, near Sydney, New South Wales, Australia, named after James Ruse.
- 5 A municipality of Ruse Province, Bulgaria.
Show 1 more definition
- 6 A province in Bulgaria.
Synonyms
All synonymsAntonyms
Example
"All the sweet talk was just a ruse to get her into bed."
Common questions
What is a synonym for "ruse"?
Common synonyms include: a device, art, artful dodge, artifice, artifice, artifices.
How do you use "ruse" in a sentence?
All the sweet talk was just a ruse to get her into bed.
How do you pronounce "ruse"?
Pronounced /ɹuːz/.
Etymology
Etymology 1
From Middle English rūse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; circuitous course taken by a hunter to pursue a game animal”), from Old French rëuse, ruse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; trickery”) (modern French ruse (“trick, ruse; cunning, guile”)), from ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”), possibly from Latin rursus (“backward; on the contrary; again, in return”) or Latin recūsāre, from recūsō (“to decline, refuse; to object to, protest, reject”). Doublet of recuse and rouse in the latter case. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare Middle French ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”); see further above.
Etymology 2
Borrowed from Bulgarian Русе (Ruse).
Etymology 3
* As an English surname, variant of Rouse, Rowse. * As a German surname, variant of Reuss, Reusse. * As a Czech surname, Americanized from Rus (“Russian”).