Part 468

Rust"less (?), a. Free from rust.

Rust"y (?), a. [AS. rustig.] [Compar. Rustier (&?;); superl. Rustiest.] 1. Covered or affected with rust; as, a rusty knife or sword; rusty wheat.

2. Impaired by inaction, disuse, or neglect.

Shak.

3. Discolored and rancid; reasty; as, rusty bacon.

4. Surly; morose; crusty; sullen. [Obs. or Prov. Eng.] "Rusty words." Piers Plowman.

5. Rust-colored; dark. "Rusty blood." Spenser.

6. Discolored; stained; not cleanly kept; filthy.

The rusty little schooners that bring firewood from the British provinces.

Hawthorne.

7. (Bot.) Resembling, or covered with a substance resembling, rust; affected with rust; rubiginous.

Rut (?), n. [F. rut, OF. ruit, L. rugitus a roaring, fr. rugire to roar; - - so called from the noise made by deer in rutting time.] 1. (Physiol.) Sexual desire or œstrus of deer, cattle, and various other mammals; heat; also, the period during which the œstrus exists.

2. Roaring, as of waves breaking upon the shore; rote. See Rote.

Rut, v. i. [imp. & p. p. Rutted; p. pr. & vb. n. Rutting.] To have a strong sexual impulse at the reproductive period; -- said of deer, cattle, etc.

Rut, v. t. To cover in copulation. Dryden.

Rut, n. [variant of route.] A track worn by a wheel or by habitual passage of anything; a groove in which anything runs. Also used figuratively.

Rut, v. t. To make a rut or ruts in; -- chiefly used as a past participle or a participial adj.; as, a rutted road.

Ru`ta-ba"ga (?), n. (Bot.) A kind of turnip commonly with a large and long or ovoid yellowish root; a Swedish turnip. See Turnip.

Ru*ta"ceous (?), a. [L. rutaceous, from ruta rue. See Rue the plant.] (Bot.) Of or pertaining to plants of a natural order (Rutaceæ) of which the rue is the type, and which includes also the orange, lemon, dittany, and buchu.

Ru"tate (r"tt), n. (Chem.) A salt of rutic acid.

Ruth (rth), n. [From Rue, v.: cf. Icel. hryggð, hrygð.] 1. Sorrow for the misery of another; pity; tenderness. [Poetic] "They weep for ruth." Chaucer. "Have ruth of the poor." Piers Plowman.

To stir up gentle ruth, Both for her noble blood, and for her tender youth.

Spenser.

2. That which causes pity or compassion; misery; distress; a pitiful sight. [Obs.]

It had been hard this ruth for to see.

Chaucer.

With wretched miseries and woeful ruth.

Spenser.