What does crossruff mean?
Crossruff is a term from trick-taking card games, chiefly whist and bridge, describing a cooperative play in which two partners repeatedly trump each other's leads. Because each partner holds shortness in different suits, one player's losing card can be ruffed (trumped) by the other, and vice versa, allowing the pair to convert what would normally be losers into extra tricks. A successful crossruff often involves deliberately not drawing the opponents' trumps first, instead cashing winners in side suits while each hand ruffs in turn. The word appears both as a verb-like description of the maneuver and as a label for the resulting sequence of tricks, and older bridge texts sometimes hyphenate it as 'cross-ruff'. Though precise and evocative within its domain, crossruff remains specialist vocabulary, meaningful mainly to card players rather than the general public.
In whist and bridge, the play in which partners alternately trump each other's leads, each ruffing a suit in which the other is void; also the sequence of tricks gained by this method.
"By setting up a crossruff, North and South turned four otherwise losing diamonds into tricks."
Usually written unhyphenated today, though 'cross-ruff' appears frequently in older bridge books.
To win a series of tricks by means of this alternating trumping between partners.
"The pair crossruffed their way through the middle of the deal before conceding the last trick."
Bridge players can turn even their losers into winners by trading them back and forth with their partner — that sleight of hand is called a crossruff.
Reviewed by Deb Chak, Editor. AI-assisted content curated by RJS Tech Solutions LLP.
Etymology of crossruff
Crossruff derives from the earlier card-game term 'ruff', meaning to play a trump on a lead of another suit, a practice known in English since the sixteenth century in games such as ruff and honours, the direct ancestor of whist. The element 'cross' reflects the crossing back and forth of leads between partners as they alternate ruffs. The compound arose in English-language whist and bridge literature, likely in the eighteenth or nineteenth century, as writers sought precise names for established techniques.
Related word forms
How crossruff is actually used
Crossruff is technical vocabulary belonging almost entirely to the world of trick-taking card games, especially bridge and whist, and is unfamiliar to most non-players. It is typically written as one word but is sometimes hyphenated as 'cross-ruff' in older bridge literature. The term carries a mildly expert, insider connotation — invoking it signals familiarity with card terminology rather than general English usage.
Easily confused with crossruff
A ruff is the single act of playing a trump on another suit's lead, whereas a crossruff is the coordinated strategy of partners repeatedly ruffing each other's winners.
A ruffle is a gathered strip of fabric used as decoration, unrelated to the card-playing term crossruff despite the shared 'ruff' sound.