ruse

Meanings

1. 1
   noun

   a trick or stratagem intended to deceive someone

   The phone call was a ruse to get him out of the house.

Simplified etymology

Ruse came into late Middle English from Old French ruser, “to use trickery.” In hunting terminology it denoted a turn, detour, or other trick made by a hunted animal to escape the hounds. Another sense of the French verb, “to drive back,” was also the source of rush.

From Old French ruse, reuse ('a turning aside, trick'), from ruser ('to dodge, drive back'), of uncertain origin, possibly from Latin recusare ('to refuse') or rursus ('backward').

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