From Middle English ruke, from Old Norse -.

• IPA: /ɹʌk/
• (Northern England, Ireland) IPA: /ɹʊk/

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A throng or crowd of people or things; a mass, a pack. [from 16th c.]
2. In Australian rules football
   1. A contest in games in which the ball is thrown or bounced in the air and two players from opposing teams attempt to give their team an advantage, typically by tapping the ball to a teammate.
   2. A player who competes in said contests; a ruckman or ruckwoman.
   3. (now, rare) Either of a ruckman or a ruck rover, but not a rover.
   4. Any one of a ruckman, a ruck rover or a rover; a follower.
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.]
5. (colloquial) An argument or fight.

ruck (rucks, present participle rucking; simple past and past participle rucked)

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

Akin to Icelandic hrukka, Old High German runza, German Runzel, Middle Dutch ronse. More at frounce. Possibly related to Irish roc.

ruck (rucks, present participle rucking; simple past and past participle rucked)

1. (transitive) To crease or fold.
2. (intransitive) To become creased or folded.
   • 1917, Edith Wharton, chapter XII, in Summer […], New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC ↗, page 178 ↗:

     "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, itself related to Proto-Germanic *hraukaz.

ruck (rucks, present participle rucking; simple past and past participle rucked)

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To cower or huddle together; to squat; to sit, as a hen on eggs.
   • c. 1386–1390, John Gower, edited by Reinhold Pauli, Confessio Amantis of John Gower: Edited and Collated with the Best Manuscripts, volume (please specify |volume=I, II, or III), London: Bell and Daldy […], published 1857, →OCLC ↗:

     Bot now thei rucken in here nest
     And resten as hem liketh best.

     (please add an English translation of this quotation)

   • c. 1591–1592 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Third Part of Henry the Sixt, […]”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC ↗, [Act V, scene vi]:

     The Rauen rook'd her on the Chimnies top,
     And chatt'ring Pies in dismall Discords sung.

ruck (plural rucks)

1. Obsolete form of roc
   • 1627, Michaell Drayton [i.e., Michael Drayton], “The Battaile of Agin Court”, in The Battaile of Agincourt. […], London: […] A[ugustine] M[atthews] for VVilliam Lee, […], published 1631, →OCLC ↗, page 14 ↗:

     The Henry Royall [a ship], at her parting thence, / Like the Huge Ruck from Gillingham that flevv: […]

ruck (plural rucks)

1. (slang, especially, military) A rucksack; a large backpack.

ruck (rucks, present participle rucking; simple past and past participle rucked)

1. To carry a backpack while hiking or marching.

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A small heifer.

Borrowed from German Ruck or Rück.

1. Surname.