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ruck

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ruck¹

  • /ɹʌk/
  • /ɹʊk/ Ireland, Northern England

Sounds like rook (most accents without the foot–strut split) · Rhymes with -ʌk

Where it comes from

From Middle English ruke, from or related to Old Norse hraukr, which is from Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“haystack, heap”). Compare Icelandic hrúka, Swedish ruka.

noun rucks

  1. A throng or crowd of people or things; a mass, a pack. 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.
  2. 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.
  3. A player who competes in said contests; a ruckman or ruckwoman.
  4. archaic Either of a ruckman or a ruck rover, but not a rover.
  5. Any one of a ruckman, a ruck rover or a rover; a follower.
  6. 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.
  7. The common mass of people or things; the ordinary ranks. ‘Here and there among cats one comes across an outstanding superior intellect, just as one does among the ruck of human beings [...].’
  8. colloquial An argument or fight. Your worth as a couple is not down to how passionate your rucks are—I said rucks—and how frantic the making-up sex is.

verb rucks · rucking · rucked

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

ruck²

Where it comes from

1780, from Old Norse hrukka (“wrinkle, crease”), from Proto-Germanic *hrunkijō, *hrunkitō (“fold, wrinkle”), from Proto-Indo-European *(s)ker- (“to turn, bend”).

Akin to Icelandic hrukka (“wrinkle, crease, ruck”), Old High German runza (“fold, wrinkle, crease”), German Runzel (“wrinkle”), Middle Dutch ronse (“frown”). More at frounce. Possibly related to Irish roc.

verb rucks · rucking · rucked

  1. transitive To crease or fold. 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 […]
  2. intransitive To become creased or folded. "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."

noun rucks

  1. A crease, a wrinkle, a pucker, as on fabric.

ruck³

Where it comes from

Compare Danish ruge (“to brood, to hatch”), itself related to Proto-Germanic *hraukaz (“heap, stack”).

verb rucks · rucking · rucked

  1. UK, dialectal, obsolete To cower or huddle together; to squat; to sit, as a hen on eggs. Bot now thei rucken in here nest And resten as hem liketh best.

ruck⁴

noun rucks

  1. obsolete Obsolete form of roc The Henry Royall [a ship], at her parting thence, / Like the Huge Ruck from Gillingham that flevv: […]

ruck⁵

Where it comes from

Clipping of rucksack.

noun rucks

  1. especially, slang A rucksack; a large backpack. Shah-e-Kot Valley, Afghanistan. March 2002. I strained to see over the soldiers in front of me. They were struggling to shuffle off the bird as quickly as they could. I dragged my ruck across the floor of the aircraft in my right hand.

verb rucks · rucking · rucked

  1. To carry a backpack while hiking or marching. 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.

ruck⁶

noun rucks

  1. A small heifer.

Ruck⁷

Where it comes from

* As a German surname, from the noun Rücken (“back”).

* Also as a German surname, shortened from derivatives of Rüdiger.

* As an English surname, variant of Rook, itself from the noun rook (“type of crow”).

proper noun Rucks

  1. A surname from German.

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Cite this
MLA

"ruck." Wiktionary, via Micwyn, micwyn.com/word/ruck. Accessed 6 Nov. 2026.

APA

ruck. (n.d.). In Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Retrieved November 6, 2026, from https://micwyn.com/word/ruck

Chicago

"ruck." Wiktionary, via Micwyn. Accessed November 6, 2026. https://micwyn.com/word/ruck.

BibTeX
@misc{ruck_2026,
  title = {ruck},
  howpublished = {Wiktionary, via Micwyn},
  year = {2026},
  url = {https://micwyn.com/word/ruck},
  urldate = {2026-11-06}
}