ruche
Americannoun
noun
Usage
What does ruche mean? A ruche is a strip of material used to finish a dress, as in Paula decided to add lace ruche to the dress’s sleeves. A ruche is a decorative piece of fabric used to finish a dress on the ends. Typically, a ruche is placed on the collar or sleeves of a dress as a way to draw attention to those areas and complete a design. A traditional ruche is made by pleating the fabric already present at the top of the dress or gathering it into small folds, but it can also be made out of pleated fabric that is added on top of the dress fabric. Ruches are often made from lace, net, or muslin but can be made from any material that can be pleated and sewn on the garment’s fabric. To ruche means to gather or pleat fabric into a ruche, as in Franny struggled to ruche the lace for the wedding gown. Example: Vlad used a bright-colored ruche on the dress sleeves to make the dress pop.
Other Word Forms
Etymology
Origin of ruche
1820–30; < French: literally, beehive < Gallo-Romance *rūsca bark, apparently < Gaulish; compare Welsh rhisg ( l ) bark, rind
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
On Nov. 14, 1975, after closing statements, Judge Ruche Marino gave his instructions to the jury.
From Slate • Oct. 6, 2025
Late in the evening of 5 September, Ruche Mittal and her husband, Manish, realised that there was trouble brewing.
From BBC • Sep. 12, 2022
La Ruche, spared as a historical monument, still offers 110 studios at $10 a month?but only one-fifth of its inhabitants are artists.
From Time Magazine Archive
And, when he got to Paris, the canvases locked up in his La Ruche studio were gone.
From Time Magazine Archive
Steering southwards, they passed the mouth of the Ruche river.
From Great African Travellers From Mungo Park to Livingstone and Stanley by Kingston, William Henry Giles
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
