ruse

Etymology

From Middle English rūse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; circuitous course taken by a hunter to pursue a game animal”), from Old French rëuse, ruse (“evasive movements of a pursued animal; trickery”) (modern French ruse (“trick, ruse; cunning, guile”)), from ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”), possibly from Latin rursus (“backward; on the contrary; again, in return”) or Latin recūsāre, from recūsō (“to decline, refuse; to object to, protest, reject”). Doublet of recuse and rouse in the latter case. The verb is derived from the noun. Compare Middle French ruser (“to use cunning, to be crafty, beguile”); see further above.

noun

1. (countable, often hunting, archaic, rare) A turning or doubling back, especially of animals to get out of the way of hunting dogs.
   The boar was evidently most averse to leave the field in which he had spent so may pleasant hours of uninterrupted rest; […] He turned sharply to one flank; he stopped dead, and went away in the opposite direction as he heard the hunters gallop past; every ruse he tried, but tried in vain. 1867, J. T. Newall, chapter XVII, in Hog Hunting in the East, and Other Sports, London: Tinsley Brothers,[…], →OCLC, pages 367–368
2. (countable, by extension) An action intended to deceive; a trick.
   It must be borne in mind that huntsmen sometimes make casts which they know must lose them their fox: […] At the same time, it would be bad policy to explain these little matters: some parties, who are not sufficiently acquainted with the management of hounds, might be discontented, whereas by such a ruse no offence is given, as nine-tenths of the Field are not aware that it is not the most likely cast to recover the scent. 1839 November, “Cecil”, “Observations on Hunting, with Comparisons of the Usages of the Past and Present Days”, in The Sporting Magazine, or Monthly Calendar of the Transactions of the Turf, the Chase and Every Other Diversion Interesting to the Man of Pleasure, Enterprise & Spirit, volume XX (2nd Series; volume XCV, Old Series), number CXV, London: Published by [J.] Pittman,[…], published 1840, →OCLC, page 53
   He was soon upon his feet, another assegai whistled through the air, and pierced through the neck of the lioness. But, as before, the wound was not fatal, and the animal, now enraged to a frenzy, charged once more upon her assailant. So rapid was her advance that it was with great difficulty Congo got under cover. A moment later, and his ruse would have failed, for the claws of the lion rattled upon the shield as it descended. 1857, [Thomas] Mayne, “How Congo the Kaffir Killed a Lioness”, in The Young Yägers: Or, A Narrative of Hunting Adventures in Southern Africa, London: David Bogue,[…], →OCLC, pages 64–65
   I have that strong impression on my mind that a person who is guilty of a ruse will hesitate at no falsehood. If it was a ruse, and if it was a deceit, you are to judge whether that elevates the persons in your mind who are parties to that trick. 7 August 1873, “Sixty-eighth Day.—Tuesday, August 7th, 1873.”, in [Edward] Kenealy, editor, The Trial at Bar of Sir Roger C. D. Tichborne, Bart.,[…], volume IV, London: "Englishman" Office, Bouverie Street, Fleet Street, London, published 1877, →OCLC, page 69, column 2
   Soon, however, Courvoisier forced matters, when, despairing of ever catching the wily outlaw leader by fair means, he resorted to the ruse of carrying off Friar Tuck of Copmanhurst and holding him as a hostage. 1922 May, Fred R. Hurworth, “The Alchemist: A Story of the Days of Robin Hood”, in The Boy’s Own Paper, volume XLV, part 7, London: "Boy's Own Paper" Office,[…], →OCLC, chapter I, page 474, column 1
   Warships, whether surface or submarine, may use ruses and strategems. They may sail under false flags, both enemy and neutral, but before going into action whether at sea or if about to attack a land target they must strike any false colours and raise their own battle colours. It would be perfidy for them to use the red cross or crescent or any other protected emblem in this way. 1993, L[eslie] C. Green, “Conduct of Hostilities: Maritime”, in The Contemporary Law of Armed Conflict (Melland Schill Monographs in International Law), Manchester, New York, N.Y.: Manchester University Press, page 169
   The terminological distinction between reproductive and therapeutic cloning is a semantic ruse, as every instance of human cloning is a true reproducive act. That is to say, the intended purpose of this research is to produce a new human being with human embryonic stem cells. 2005 November, John R. Meyer, “The Brave New World of Embryonic Stem Cell Research: Utilitarian Consequentialism and Faulty Moral Reasoning”, in Eugene F. Diamond, John J. Brennan, editors, The Linacre Quarterly: Journal of the Catholic Medical Association, volume 72, number 1, Needham, Mass.: Catholic Medical Association, →DOI, →ISSN, →OCLC, footnote 2, page 327
   Politics is a dirty business, a ruse, an ideological cul-de-sac, a vast looter of intellectual and financial resources, a lie that corrupts, a deceiver, a means of unleashing vast evil in the world of the most unexpected and undetected sort and the greatest diverter of human productivity ever concocted by those who do not believe in authentic social and economic progress. 12 August 2012, Anthony Wile (interviewer), Jeffrey Tucker, “Exclusive Interview: Jeffrey Tucker on Laissez Faire Books, Intellectual Property Rights and ‘Beautiful Anarchy’”, in The Daily Bell, archived from the original on 2017-08-08
3. (uncountable) Cunning, guile, trickery.
   [H]e Bertrand du Guesclin] had great natural cunning, that half-savage quality, was full of ruse and trick in war, he was contemptuous towards the high noblesse, but gentle to the poor, and generous to his friends. 1873, G[eorge] W[illiam] Kitchin, “The Deeds of Charles V, ‘the Wise.’ a.d. 1360–1380.”, in A History of France down to the Year 1453 (Clarendon Press Series), Oxford: At the University Press, →OCLC, pages 456–457
   A French privateer operating under an English commission raided Massacre Island at the mouth of Mobile Bay in 1710, robbing its warehouse of thousands of deerskins and other pelts, as well as of naval stores. They took the small place by ruse. 2005, Benerson Little, “Houses, Towns, and Cities Sacked: The Sea Rover as a Soldier”, in The Sea Rover’s Practice: Pirate Tactics and Techniques, 1630–1730, Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books; 1st paperback edition, Washington, D.C.: Potomac Books, 2007, page 190

verb

1. (intransitive) To deceive or trick using a ruse.
   Anyway, no man can escape the woman he considers too much rused for him: tear her down or run away toward her if he can't meet her head-and-hind on. 1956, Herbert Gold, “Then Visited from the Jungle to Jungles”, in The Man who was Not with It, Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown and Company, →OCLC; republished as The Man who was Not with It (Second Edition Books), Chapel Hill, N.C.: Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, 1987, page 37
   And, in a way, s/he is already told, and what s/he him/herself is telling will not undo the fact that somewhere else s/he is told, but it will "ruse" with this; it will offer a variant in the form and even in the story. 1985, Jean-François Lyotard, Jean-Loup Thébald, translated by Wlad Godzich, Just Gaming (Theory and History of Literature; 20), Minneapolis, Minn.: University of Minnesota Press, published 1999, page 41
   Even at that, the most plausible way of understanding, "the text deconstructs itself" is surely that the text signals the itinerary of its desire to be "about something," and that this itinerary must ruse over the open-endedness of the field of meaning; at a certain point, it is possible to locate the moment when the rusing reveals itself as the structure of unresolvable self-cancellings. 1998, Gayatri Chakravorty Spivak, “Finding Feminist Readings: Dante–Yeats”, in In Other Worlds: Essays in Cultural Politics, Abingdon, Oxon., New York, N.Y.: Routledge, page 21
   In all types, manners and forms, empire “bilderz” come forward rusing out their favorite lines and spew. A sale just means yer not bein' gouged as much, doesn't it? 2009, Lee Kierig, “Ain’t No School, Quite Like, No Skool”, in Where, is Infinite Love? Public Welfare, Human Responsibility and Sustainability of Earth: A Letter to Humanity, New York, N.Y.: Strategic Book Publishing, page 225
   Moreover, since we have now reached an extreme point in the development of consciousness, and know our own selves through and through, no 'ultimate self-doubt' remains which would allow us to ruse with death – as when, in Pascal's wager, it is the doubt about the afterlife which determines the choice. 2012, Paul de Man, “Mallarmé (1960)”, in Martin McQuillan, editor, The Post-Romantic Predicament, Edinburgh: Edinburgh University Press, part II (Igitur), page 73
2. (intransitive, hunting, archaic, rare) Of an animal: to turn or double back to elude hunters or their hunting dogs.
   And he [the hart] fleeth then mightily and far from the hounds, that is to say he hath gone a great way from them, then he will go into the stank, and will soil therein once or twice in all the stank and then he will come out again by the same way that he went in, and then he shall ruse again the same way that he came (the length of) a bow shot or more, and then he shall ruse out of the way, for to stall or squatt to rest him, and that he doeth for he knoweth well that the hounds shall come by the fues [footing] into the stank where he was. c. 1425, Edward, Second Duke of York [i.e., Edward of Norwich, 2nd Duke of York], “Of the Hart and His Nature”, in W[illia]m A[dolf] Baillie-Grohman, F[lorence] Baillie-Grohman, editors, The Master of Game by Edward, Second Duke of York: The Oldest English Book on Hunting, London: Chatto & Windus, published 1909, →OCLC, page 33
   With these whelps [the hunting dogs] who know the way but are in danger of being baffled by the rusing stag, the hunter sends the reliable old harre (perseverance). He is indispensable, as he has often confronted the stag at bay. 1974, Marcelle Thiébaux, “Medieval Allegories of the Love Chase”, in The Stag of Love: The Chase in Medieval Literature, Ithaca, N.Y., London: Cornell University Press, published 2014, page 190
   In the parallel hunt of Octovian, the hart has rused and momentarily escaped. With the death of White, the Knight's heart is wounded and his life is endangered but he escapes for a time as does the hart, though the hunter Death will ultimately be successful in both cases. 1988, “Hunt”, in Jean-Charles Seigneuret, editor, Dictionary of Literary Themes and Motifs, volumes 1 (A–J), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, page 642
   Sometimes the stag would throw the hounds off the scent by a series of clever ruses—for example, by retracing a part of his path and leaping dramatically in one direction. […] Ultimately, the stag would tire, and its signals of exhaustion (short rusing runs, downwind flight, and the narrowing of the toe prints) would be evident to the trackers. 1991, Thomas S. Henricks, “Sport in the Later Middle Ages”, in Disputed Pleasures: Sport and Society in Preindustrial England (Contributions to the Study of World History; no. 28), Westport, Conn.: Greenwood Press, →ISSN, page 46