gruff

adj

1. having a rough, surly, and harsh demeanor and nature.
2. hoarse-voiced.

   “a gruff woman”

3. hoarse.

   “a gruff voice”

4. (British, India)Of goods: bulky.

   “[…] articles that usually compose the gruff cargoes of our outward bound shipping.”

   “[…] which by causing a great export of rice enhances the price of labour, and consequently of all other gruff, piece-goods and raw silk […]”

verb

1. To speak gruffly.

   ““Who gave you that?” replied my father angrily. “Did you bribe someone?” “No,” I told him. “It was a gift, from some people who really want me to be on this trip.” “Fine,” he gruffed.”

noun

1. (alt-of, alternative)Alternative spelling of grough (“gully in a moor”).

   “[…] Yorkshire and Derbyshire, where [...] the ordinary sportsman has to go "gruffing," as it is called, to game game, i. e., stealing up the "gruffs" or gullies and undulations in the ground, and trying all the clumps of long old twisted heather and broken bogs. […] the open places on the moor, and thus driving the birds forward to deep lying bogs and "gruffs" […]”

   “They found Uttley's body on the bottom of the gruff.”

   “[…] the body […] was found in a 'gruff' or gully about three-quarters of a mile from the Poacher's Leap.”

   “They roost [...] in peaty gruffs and drainage channels, and on moorland tracks and sheep- walks, […]”