Definition of "peruke"

peruke

/pəˈɹuːk/

noun
plural perukes
1. A wig, especially one with long hair on the sides and back, worn mainly by men in the 17th and 18th centuries.
  Quotations
  To poſterity perhaps his prints vvill carry an idea of ſomething burleſque; perukes of outrageous length flovving over ſuits of armour compoſe vvonderfull habits.
  1763, Horace Walpole, “Mr. JOHN SMITH”, in A Catalogue of Engravers, Who Have Been Born, or Resided in England; […], Strawberry-Hill [London]: […] Thomas Farmer […], page 105
  But now at thirty years my hair is gray— / (I wonder what it will be like at forty? / I thought of a peruke the other day) […]
  1819 July 15, [Lord Byron], Don Juan, London: […] Thomas Davison, […], canto I, stanza CCXIII, page 109
  Let the long peruke succeed the godly cropt hair; the cravat, the ruff; […]
  1834, Robert Southey, “Ante-preface”, in The Doctor, &c., volume I, London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, Green, and Longman, pages 35–36
  Every chair was filled, the line of assistants working like conjurors at the bizarre hairstyles, a splendid confusion of feathers and flared perukes, wings of back-brushed hair, like the plumage of an aviary.
  1979, J.G. Ballard, chapter 19, in The Unlimited Dream Company
  With a delicate touch, he reset his golden peruke on his sweat-slick skull.
  1992, Kim Newman, Anno Dracula, Titan Books, published 2011, page 135