Wiktionary
n. (context UK dialect Northern England English) A scuffle; a physical fight or struggle. vb. (context transitive UK dialect Northern England English) To scuffle; to wrestle.
Usage examples of "scruffle".
I observed the rhythms of the night: the fleeting movements of owl and rodent, the scruffles of foraging hedgehogs, the prowling of the restive djinn.
Poochie had gone to her and she scruffled his neck feathers with long pale fingers, the bitten nails painted black.
A moment later, his mother scruffled his hair as she passed him on her way upstairs.
Like scruffling things with claws, they came crawling back into his brain.
I burrowed upward again, reaching the surface after twenty minutes of snuffling, scruffling, and turning my beady nose up at the juicy worms I uncovered after every couple of scrapes.
Othnam said as he scruffled the thick fur behind the lymmnal's muscle-ridged neck.