Green’s Dictionary of Slang

(UK Und.) handcuffs.

1785, 1788, 1796		Grose Classical Dict. of the Vulgar Tongue.
1805		Norfolk Chron. 12 Oct. 2/3: They were each coplimented with iron ruffles, i.e. handcuffs, and conveyed to a place of confinement.
1812		Vaux Vocab. of the Flash Lang.
1816		Kentish Gaz. 27 Sept. 3/3: Johnson said to him, producing [...] some ‘ruffles,’ handcuffs, ‘If you make any resistance I will blow your brains out’.
1822		Life and Trial of James Mackcoull 115: They all agreed that he set the darbies and ruffles charmingly.
1829		Dublin Eve. Packet 10 Oct. 4/5: It was thought proper that a pair of steel ruffles (handcuffs) should unite the impatient groom to one of the overseers.
1833		Morning Courier and N.-Y. Enquirer 13 Apr. 2/3: High Constable Hays [...] has seen the necessity of being well provided with what are technically called safety chains and ruffles.
1833		Satirist (London) 3 Mar. 490/1: The ‘ruffles’ were taken off, and Donkey appeared at the bar.
1840		Era (London) 9 Aug. 5/2: Only one pair of handcuffs between the three. The ‘ruffles,’ however, have just been ‘walked off’.
1851		Gloucester Jrnl 19 July 3/7: Gleed [...] searched the prisoner’s boxes and found a pair of ruffles.
1859		‘Scene in a London Flash-Panny’ Matsell Vocabulum 101: Harry, my lad, the game’s up; hold out your wrists for the ruffles.
1865		Leaves from Diary of Celebrated Burglar 29/1: ‘Take off your boots and stockings, or else I will shove these “ruffles” on you,’ said the ‘cop’. [Ibid.] 89/2: Immediately another ‘skuffter’ [...] seized Jemmy by the leg and held him until another managed to enter and the ‘ruffs were put on.’.
1867		Nat. Police Gaz. (NY) 14 Sept. n.p.: King and Fitzgerald had ‘shed their ruffles’.
1872		G.P. Burnham Memoirs of the US Secret Service 82: The big dealer is stoutly grasped by the sleek parson and his aids, who clap the iron ruffles upon his wrists.
1881		Trumble ‘On the Trail’ in Sl. Dict. (1890) 44: [as cit. 1859].
1895		C. Crowe Aus. Sl. Dict. 68: Ruffels, handcuffs.
1906		A.H. Lewis Confessions of a Detective 207: Hold out your wrists for the ruffles.
1936		(ref. to 1920s) L. Duncan Over the Wall 168: I [...] elevated my arms, then lowered them as ruffles clicked in place on my wrists.