• IPA: /ɹʌk/

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A throng or crowd of people or things; a mass, a pack. [from 16th c.]
   • 1873, Anthony Trollope, Phineas Redux, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140811201712/http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w Chapter 16]:

     Dandolo was constantly in the ditch, sometimes lying with his side against the bank, and had now been so hustled and driven that, had he been on the other side, he would have had no breath left to carry his rider, even in the ruck of the hunt.

   • 1914, Booth Tarkington, Penrod, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140811201712/http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w Chapter 23]:

     At last, out of the ruck rose Verman, disfigured and maniacal. With a wild eye he looked about him for his trusty rake; but Penrod, in horror, had long since thrown the rake out into the yard.

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.]
   • 1874, Thomas Hardy, [https://web.archive.org/web/20140811201712/http://etext.virginia.edu/etcbin/ot2www-pubeng?specfile=%2Ftexts%2Fenglish%2Fmodeng%2Fpublicsearch%2Fmodengpub.o2w Far from the Madding Crowd]:

     "He is well born." "His being higher in learning and birth than the ruck o' soldiers is anything but a proof of his worth. It shows his course to be down'ard."

   • 1911, Saki, ‘Tobermory’, The Chronicles of Clovis:

     ‘Here and there among cats one comes across an outstanding superior intellect, just as one does among the ruck of human beings [...].’

ruck (rucks, present participle rucking; 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.

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

1. (transitive) To crease or fold.
   • 1956, C. S. Lewis, The Last Battle, Collins, 1998, Chapter 8:

     Puzzle begged very hard to have the lion-skin taken off him. He said it was too hot and the way it was rucked up on his back was uncomfortable […]

   • 1959, Peter De Vries, The Tents of Wickedness, page 28:

     "What, exactly, happened down cellar?" Appleyard asked, straightening with his heel a rucked rug.

   • 1989, Carol Shields, "Block Out" in The Collected Stories, Random House Canada, 2004, page 299:

     She wore long dangling earrings faced with mirrors, and white Bermuda shorts rucked back to reveal knees and thighs like waxed maple.

   • 2003, Nadine Gordimer, "L,U, C, I, E." in Loot and Other Stories, New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux:

     The army had a shooting range up there hidden in the chestnut forests, that was all; like a passing plane rucking the fabric of perfect silence, the shots brought all that shatters continuity in life, the violence of emotions, the trajectories of demands and contests of will.

2. (intransitive) To become folded.
   • 1917, Edith Wharton, chapter XII, in Summer: A Novel, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, OCLC 754085651 ↗, 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.

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

1. (UK, dialect, obsolete) To cower or huddle together; to squat; to sit, as a hen on eggs.

ruck (plural rucks)

1. Obsolete form of roc#English|roc.

ruck (plural rucks)

1. (slang, especially, military) A rucksack; a large backpack.
   • July 5, 2013, Brad McLeod, Top 10 Ruck Marching Tips, , accessed 17 JUL 2015:

     "First of all – a “ruck” is nothing more than a backpack. So to ruck march, is to carry a heavy duty backpack on a hike (loaded with gear and supplies)."

   • 2015, Sean T. Smith, Wrath and Redemption ISBN 1618684582:

     Rocky was only five foot six and skinny as a February coyote, but he could hump an eighty pound ruck across twenty mountain miles […]

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

1. To carry a backpack while hiking or marching.
   • 2015 June 16, Brandon Cole, Mount Vernon's Barnes to Compete in "Death Race", in the Posey County News, page 13:

     He started at 9:30 a.m. on Sunday as he began rucking to church. He changed his clothes, went to church and then began rucking again. That distance totaled about nine miles. Rucking is hiking with a military style backpack, filled with weight.

ruck (plural rucks)

1. A small heifer.