What's the difference between rowdy and ruffian?

Rowdy


Definition:

  • (n.) One who engages in rows, or noisy quarrels; a ruffianly fellow.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) A rowdy fringe took to raiding liquor stores, spraying graffiti and flaunting marijuana.
  • (2) Sure enough, the rowdy crowd in the Fox News audience gave him a lusty boo - the loudest of a rambunctious night and maybe of the entire primary season so far - while Gingrich called him "utterly irrational" for questioning the manner of Bin Laden's killing.
  • (3) On Sunday rowdy crowds, waving Chinese flags, surrounded the government’s headquarters in a show of support for Beijing’s unprecedented decision, criticised by pro-democracy activists and legal experts as a massive blow to Hong Kong’s judicial independence.
  • (4) Chile, backed by their rousing and rowdy red sea of fans, knew they needed to win because of Holland’s superior goal difference.
  • (5) It's not a rowdy place – think the cocktail cognoscenti trading tales over Rolling Stones classics – so come to expand your palate (but squeeze your wallet!).
  • (6) "I went to see Brazil play Sweden in the Silverdome in Detroit in 1994 and despite the presence of rowdy Brazilians, the atmosphere was flat.
  • (7) He had absolute control of a very rowdy crowd without pandering to them at all, and was so delightfully silly that it actually turned them into a pleasant bunch of people.
  • (8) Yesterday, the first session back after half-term break (rowdiness isn't the only thing that makes parliament seem like school), David Cameron welcomed the fact that Miliband had adopted a consensual style: "I thought I might miss Punch and Judy, but this is refreshing!"
  • (9) As he watched the rowdy march pass, Jason Rose cheered in support.
  • (10) Lord Justice Leveson joined in, like the headmaster walking in on a rowdy classroom.
  • (11) In Fairplay we passed up the grill at McCall’s Park Bar – a rowdy tavern packed with hunters and cowboys – in favour of spaghetti at the Valiton Hotel .
  • (12) It is two minutes from the nearest bus stop but the drunks and rowdies never seemed to find it.
  • (13) The chants ranged from innocuous (drinking beer and not wanting to return to work on Monday) to sexist, to outright racist (“I’d rather be a Paki than a grass”), in particular directed towards someone who I can only assume contacted the train manager in relation to the rowdy behaviour of the fans.” Another witness, who wished to remain anonymous, said the fans were not wearing Chelsea colours but were chanting “about how they’d just won the League Cup and how they’re top of the league”.
  • (14) The funniest heckle I’ve ever had At a chain comedy club notorious for rowdy stags and hens, a group of 14 stags decided to turn my set into a Q&A session.
  • (15) The secret service's reputation for rowdy behaviour was reinforced in April 2012 in the runup to Obama's visit to the Caribbean resort of Cartagena in Colombia, where 13 agents and officers were accused of carousing with female foreign nationals at a hotel where they were staying before the president's arrival.
  • (16) It’s special for us to play in this country,” said Zabaleta of the hordes of rowdy supporters that have followed them around Brazil.
  • (17) Candy Crowley, the moderator at Tuesday night's presidential debate, is coming under intense criticism from Romney supporters for the way she intervened in the rowdy dispute between the two presidential candidates over Libya .
  • (18) And the best of Phife’s verses always tended to be based in rowdy, bawdy expression.
  • (19) Until recently, Belgrade was more likely to be visited by younger travellers interrailing around Europe, looking to enjoy its rowdy nightlife, than those out for a city break.
  • (20) "I have the impression from watching Question Time that audiences have got much more rowdy in recent years.

Ruffian


Definition:

  • (n.) A pimp; a pander; also, a paramour.
  • (n.) A boisterous, cruel, brutal fellow; a desperate fellow ready for murderous or cruel deeds; a cutthroat.
  • (a.) brutal; cruel; savagely boisterous; murderous; as, ruffian rage.
  • (v. i.) To play the ruffian; to rage; to raise tumult.

Example Sentences:

  • (1) Behind the Manchester ruffian image, they were conscientious people.
  • (2) These trousers, it later transpired, cost £995, and Nicky Morgan duly seized that predictable bait and snorted, “I don’t think I’ve ever spent that much on anything apart from my wedding dress.” After all, she added, while possibly patting a young local ruffian on the head, “My barometer is always, ‘How am I going to explain this in Loughborough market?” I think this was Morgan’s clueless way of saying she keeps it real, but it didn’t really work because those trousers looked exactly like the kind of thing sold in my local market, which, just this weekend, alongside the £1 Christmas crackers, was selling leather bustiers and disgusting, studded leather jackets.
  • (3) Two centuries later, Ruskin echoed these sentiments: Caravaggio, he claimed, painted “for the sake of the shadows”, and he was a “ruffian … distinguished only by his preference for candlelight and reinforcement of villainy”.
  • (4) Budget night at the opera: 28 March 1980 The souvenir programme (with it being a gala night, the programme cost more than a seat in some other theatres) promised "knights, esquires, ladies, ruffians, pages, maskers, soldiers, ushers, halberdiers, cupbearers and gondoliers."
  • (5) With their tight jeans and updated teddy-boy styles, the four gaff lads exude rough sex: they could have walked straight out of the Smiths's "Rusholme Ruffians" from the album Meat is Murder.