ride roughshod over

present singular third person rides roughshod over · participle present riding roughshod over · past rode roughshod over · participle past ridden roughshod over

1. idiomatictransitiveTo treat (someone) roughly or without care, control, moderation, or respect; to act in a bullying manner toward (someone); to damage (someone or something).

   He was brusque; he often rode roughshod over feminine sensibilities.

   1901, Henry B[lake] Fuller, “The Downfall of Abner Joyce”, in Under the Skylights, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, chapter VI, page 28

   5 more examples

   [B]eing in high ſpirits, after dinner, one of them being called upon for a toaſt, gave, „The d——l ride roughſhod over the raſcally part of the creation.”

   1795, The Festival of Wit, Being a Collection of Bon-mots, Anecdotes, etc. of the Most Exalted Characters, volume [I], Dresden: […] C. and F. Walther, →OCLC, page 48

   [H]ad the Commons of England been of his way of thinking, Charles [I of England] and his prerogative would have ridden roughshod over their necks at will.

   1839, [H. M. Fletcher], chapter VII, in The Wizard of Windshaw. A Tale of the Seventeenth Century. […], volume III, London: J. W. Southgate, […], →OCLC, page 173

   Thus, revelling amidst the wrecks of poor, feeble, helpless, ruined woman, man rides roughshod over his slaughtered victim, (Jehu like), saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst."

   1845 September, “Woman Lost, Woman Restored, and Man Warned”, in The Mariners’ Church Gospel Temperance Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Magazine, volume XXV, number 9, London: Naval and Military Office, […], and by Basteil, […] for the Temperance British and Foreign Seaman, Soldiers, and Steamers’ Friend Society, and Bethel Flag Union, →OCLC, page 412

   He's so absent-minded and goodnatured, he lets those boys ride over him roughshod.

   1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 33, in Little Women: […], 2nd part, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC

   “[…] where I come from we aren't accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, pig-headed mule in a pop-gun pea-shooter battery. Are you ready?”

   1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Her Majesty's Servants”, in The Jungle Book, London; New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC

   Synonyms: ride over, run roughshod over