What's the difference between muffle and ruffle?

Muffle


Definition:

  • (n.) The bare end of the nose between the nostrils; -- used esp. of ruminants.
  • (v. t.) To wrap up in something that conceals or protects; to wrap, as the face and neck, in thick and disguising folds; hence, to conceal or cover the face of; to envelop; to inclose; -- often with up.
  • (v. t.) To prevent seeing, or hearing, or speaking, by wraps bound about the head; to blindfold; to deafen.
  • (v. t.) To wrap with something that dulls or deadens the sound of; as, to muffle the strings of a drum, or that part of an oar which rests in the rowlock.
  • (v. i.) To speak indistinctly, or without clear articulation.
  • (v. t.) Anything with which another thing, as an oar or drum, is muffled; also, a boxing glove; a muff.
  • (v. t.) An earthenware compartment or oven, often shaped like a half cylinder, used in furnaces to protect objects heated from the direct action of the fire, as in scorification of ores, cupellation of ore buttons, etc.
  • (v. t.) A small oven for baking and fixing the colors of painted or printed pottery, without exposing the pottery to the flames of the furnace or kiln.
  • (v. t.) A pulley block containing several sheaves.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Weirdly, the muffled Doppler effects of several thousand passing SUVs was quite soothing.
  • (2) True diastolic pressure is usually closer to the disappearance point of Korotkoff sounds than to the muffling phase.
  • (3) Hence his fondness for placing the camera far away from its subjects: Hidden coolly watches as a child's small world falls apart, his cries muffled by the intervening space; and Code Unknown concludes by showing how life, likened by Haneke to a flea circus, indifferently unravels on a Paris boulevard.
  • (4) The presence of a muffled voice led to radiologic and indirect laryngoscopic examination confirming the diagnosis.
  • (5) The effect of El Niño during these years compounded the muffling effect of greenhouse gases and lead to exceptionally hot global temperatures.
  • (6) I heard about three or four shots fired, but they were muffled, as if taking place indoors,” one witness told Agence France-Presse.
  • (7) Common symptoms include fever, swollen neck, difficult swallowing, muffled voice and hyperextension of the head and neck.
  • (8) In places there were moans and muffled cries beneath the ruins, spurring frantic efforts to dig people out with bare hands and improvised tools.
  • (9) The determinations of calcium, magnesium, and phosphorus in dentine showed no significant differences between LTA, muffle furnace ashing (MFA), and wet ashing.
  • (10) The policemen closed the doors, but the muffled screams continued outside.
  • (11) The samples of the mentioned tissues were dried and ashed in the muffle furnace.
  • (12) Questions will undoutedly be asked about Brown's vocal capabilities – once described by Guardian critic Alexis Petridis as "a muffled, gloomy honk, like a despondent goose wearing a balaclava" – and whether the band, now in middle-age, will be able to capture the heady excitement of their early days.
  • (13) For some it sounded muffled and far away, as though somewhere in the distance a big balloon had popped.
  • (14) Once again, Vince Cable is a rather lonely prophet worrying where this will lead, but this time a voice of warning somewhat muffled by collective responsibility.
  • (15) Fabricant, who was strongly involved in the Tory campaign in Eastleigh, tweeted: "The Conservative voice is muffled and not crisp.
  • (16) But instead of a traditional riot or at least some minor destruction, the place was filled with well-behaved individuals, talking in the "inside voices" with muffled jubilation (even when the US won!).
  • (17) Abnormal or muffled heart sounds associated with pericarditis and epicarditis was the most common sequela, occurring in 40 cases.
  • (18) The polite approach of London Citizens has so far yielded muffled responses, but the issue will be raised at a November board meeting: if there is no decisive yes, expect the gloves to come off, and more direct action, including a shoppers' boycott.
  • (19) Inadequate velopharyngeal function, whether congenital or subsequent to palatal repair, may be masked by the presence of other speech problems in this syndrome, particularly by the "muffled" voice quality which appears to be associated with an elevated and retracted tongue posture.
  • (20) Extreme sore throat, pooling of oral secretions, muffled voice, and elevated temperature were uncommon.

Ruffle


Definition:

  • (v. t.) To make into a ruff; to draw or contract into puckers, plaits, or folds; to wrinkle.
  • (v. t.) To furnish with ruffles; as, to ruffle a shirt.
  • (v. t.) To oughen or disturb the surface of; to make uneven by agitation or commotion.
  • (v. t.) To erect in a ruff, as feathers.
  • (v. t.) To beat with the ruff or ruffle, as a drum.
  • (v. t.) To discompose; to agitate; to disturb.
  • (v. t.) To throw into disorder or confusion.
  • (v. t.) To throw together in a disorderly manner.
  • (v. i.) To grow rough, boisterous, or turbulent.
  • (v. i.) To become disordered; to play loosely; to flutter.
  • (v. i.) To be rough; to jar; to be in contention; hence, to put on airs; to swagger.
  • (v. t. & i.) That which is ruffled; specifically, a strip of lace, cambric, or other fine cloth, plaited or gathered on one edge or in the middle, and used as a trimming; a frill.
  • (v. t. & i.) A state of being ruffled or disturbed; disturbance; agitation; commotion; as, to put the mind in a ruffle.
  • (v. t. & i.) A low, vibrating beat of a drum, not so loud as a roll; -- called also ruff.
  • (v. t. & i.) The connected series of large egg capsules, or oothecae, of any one of several species of American marine gastropods of the genus Fulgur. See Ootheca.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) The ruffles of the sub-marginal cells showed different characteristics, being longer and not propagated successively as were the marginal ruffles.
  • (2) Maturing enamel overlaid by either ruffle-ended or smooth-ended maturation ameloblasts showed similar Ca and P concentrations.
  • (3) Injection of GTP gamma S inhibited ruffling and increased spreading, suggesting an increase in adhesion.
  • (4) This is a team who have found their feet after that winless group section, a side who have already seen off the much admired Croatia and who can ruffle the feathers of the hosts or the reigning world champions.
  • (5) Stimulation of membrane ruffling is one of the first events induced by addition of growth factors to quiescent cultures.
  • (6) Suddenly he would be picking up speed, scurrying past opponents and, in one instance, slipping the ball through Laurent Koscielny’s legs for a nutmeg that was so exquisitely executed he might have been tempted to ruffle his opponent’s hair.
  • (7) In the SEM three corresponding types were identified, a relatively smooth spherical type, a highly ruffled type and a fairly smooth flattened type.
  • (8) Other designs included short ruffle cocktail dresses with velvet parkas slung over the shoulder; blazers made of stringed pearly pink; and gold beading and a lace catsuit.
  • (9) The Glasman "project" will undoubtedly ruffle feathers inside and outside Labour.
  • (10) In the active phase of root resorption, the resorption organ contained many odontoclasts with a well-developed ruffled border and a reduced clear zone, cementoblasts, fibroblasts, macrophages, neutrophils, and many blood vessels.
  • (11) The cells were oval or round, most of them with a rough surface due to presence of microvilli, ruffles, ridges, and blebs of various numbers and shapes.
  • (12) The osteoclasts secrete a large amount of protons by the action of H(+)-pump on the ruffled border into the sealed resorption cavity, resulting in the acidified microenvironment under which condition the bone matrix is dissolved.
  • (13) Ruffles were only rarely present in the continuous presence of NGF and were absent after NGF withdrawal.
  • (14) The presence of wide and short ruffles of epithelial cells covered with mucus is typical of the secretory phase of the cycle.
  • (15) Six of the orally infected P. maniculatus developed clinical signs including ruffled hair coat, inappetence, reluctance to move, and lameness in the rear legs.
  • (16) The increases in actin cables were associated with a lack of ruffled edges that are indicative of motile cells.
  • (17) Osteoclasts are multinucleated giant cells showing specialized membrane structures, clear zones and ruffled borders, which are responsible for the process of bone resorption.
  • (18) ruffled membrane movement, phagocytosis of some particles, glucose oxidation through the hexose monophosphate shunt and an increase in the activity of a membrane enzyme, adenylate cyclase.
  • (19) The presence of membrane ruffles at the cell border and of numerous thick bundles of actin crossing the cell body, suggests that the factor promotes cell spreading; this probably interferes with cytokinesis, ultimately leading to the formation of very large flattened multinucleated cells.
  • (20) They gradually displayed active membrane pseudopodia, thorn-like processes and petal-like ruffles after 2 h to 4 h of cultivation.