/ɹʌf/, /ɹɐf/, /ɹʊf/
OriginFrom Middle English rough, roughe, roȝe, row, rou, ru, ruȝ, ruh, from Old English rūg, rūh, from Proto-Germanic *rūhaz.
Cognate with Scots ruch, rouch (“rough”), Saterland Frisian ruuch, rouch (“rough”), West Frisian rûch (“rough”), Low German ruuch (“rough”), Dutch ruig (“rough”), German rau(h) (“rough”), Danish ru (“uneven on the surface, "rough", "rugged"”).
- Not smooth; uneven.
“rough hands”
“rough stone”
“rough surface”
- Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.
“a rough copy”
“a rough estimate”
“a rough guess”
- Turbulent.
“rough sea”
“rough water”
“rough weather”
- Difficult; trying.
“Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.”
- Crude; unrefined.
“His manners are a bit rough, but he means well.”
- Worn; shabby; weather-beaten.
- Having socio-economic problems, hence possibly dangerous.
- Violent; not careful or subtle.
“rough words”
“This box has been through some rough handling.”
- Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating.
“a rough tone”
“a rough voice”
“But most by Numbers judge a Poet's song, / And smooth or rough, with them”
- Not polished; uncut.
- Harsh-tasting.
- Ireland, UK, colloquial, slangSomewhat ill; sick; in poor condition.
- Ireland, UK, colloquial, slangUnwell due to alcohol; hungover.
- Of or relating to the rough breathing in the Greek language.
- The unmowed part of a golf course.
- A rude fellow; a coarse bully; a rowdy.
“In Wellington Street my brother met a couple of sturdy roughs, who had just rushed out of Fleet Street with still wet newspapers and staring placards. "Dreadful catastrophe!" they bawled one to the ot”
- A scuffed and roughened area of the pitch, where the bowler's feet fall, used as a target by spin bowlers because of its unpredictable bounce.
- The raw material from which faceted or cabochon gems are created.
- A quick sketch, similar to a thumbnail but larger and more detailed, used for artistic brainstorming.
- obsoleteBoisterous weather.
“In calms you fish; in roughs use songs and dances.”
- A piece inserted in a horseshoe to keep the animal from slipping.
- To create in an approximate form.
“Rough in the shape first, then polish the details.”
“On the floor, one beside the other, stood two amphoræ of veined marble-like limestone; one a huge vase 2 feet high and more than 6 feet round, finished and perfect, with two splendid spiral bands; and”
- intransitiveTo break the rules by being excessively violent.
“[…] roughing is not a part of the sport, and will not be tolerated. Referees will not permit unfair practices that may cause injury to a contestant, and are held strictly responsible for enforcing the”
- To commit the offense of roughing, i.e. to punch another player.
- To render rough; to roughen.
- To break in (a horse, etc.), especially for military purposes.
“To Rough Horses, a word in familiar use among the dragoons to signify the act of breaking in horses, so as to adapt them to military purposes.”
- To endure primitive conditions.
“to rough it”
““[…]Oh, but my husband is never so happy as when he is travelling. He likes roughing it. . . . My husband. . . . My husband. . . .””
“I was able to help Trudy set up camp and everything else, of course there are different ways to camp the usual comfortable way or roughed we of course roughed it and I did my best to keep warm.”
- transitiveTo roughen a horse's shoes to keep the animal from slipping.
- In a rough manner; rudely; roughly.
“I will warrant they prove such roaring boys as I knew when I served under Lumford and Goring, [...] —sleeping rough on the trenches, and dying stubbornly in their boats. Ah! those merry days are gone.”
Formsrougher(comparative) · roughest(superlative) · ruff(alternative, pronunciation-spelling) · roughs(plural) · roughs(present, singular, third-person) · roughing(participle, present) · roughed(participle, past) · roughed(past) · more rough(comparative) · most rough(superlative) · Roughs(plural)