rough

comparative rougher · superlative roughest · alternative pronunciation spelling ruff

1. Not smooth; uneven.

   rough hands

   3 more examples

   rough stone

   rough surface

   The rock was one of those tremendously solid brown, or rather black, rocks which emerge from the sand like something primitive. Rough with crinkled limpet shells and sparsely strewn with locks of dry seaweed, a small boy has to stretch his legs far apart, and indeed to feel rather heroic, before he gets to the top.

   1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC

   Synonyms: abrasive, coarse, rugose · Antonyms: smooth

2. Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.

   a rough copy

   4 more examples

   a rough estimate

   a rough guess

   a rough plan

   a rough sketch of a building

   Synonyms: almost, back-of-the-envelope, ballpark, near

3. Turbulent.

   rough sea

   3 more examples

   rough water

   rough weather

   With my mother's permission and blessings, I set off exultantly for Bombay, leaving my wife with a baby of a few months. But on arrival there, friends told my brother that the Indian Ocean was rough in June and July, and as this was my first voyage, I should not be allowed to sail until November.

   1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XII, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC

   Synonyms: agitated, tempestuous, tumultuous

4. Difficult; trying.

   Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.

   Synonyms: challenging, hard, tough, arduous, challenging, nasty, difficult, sticky

5. Crude; unrefined.

   His manners are a bit rough, but he means well.

   Synonyms: rudimentary, undeveloped, barbaric, uncouth, crude, garagelike, primitive, rude

6. Worn; shabby; weather-beaten.

   "You find us a bit rough," apologized the young man, with something of contempt towards his surroundings. "We weren't expecting visitors."

   1914, Ernest Bramah [pseudonym; Ernest Brammah Smith], Max Carrados

   Synonyms: dilapidated, ragged, wrecksome, clapped out, damaged, defective, deteriorated, dilapidated

7. Having socio-economic problems, hence possibly dangerous.

   the rough bit of town

   Synonyms: bad, poor

8. Violent; not careful or subtle.

   rough words

   1 more example

   This box has been through some rough handling.

   Synonyms: lax, negligent, slipshod, careless, cursory, derelict, heedless, irregardless

9. Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating.

   a rough tone

   2 more examples

   a rough voice

   But most by Numbers judge a Poet's song, / And smooth or rough, with them

   1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC

   Synonyms: discordant, raucous, unlistenable, absonant, cacophonic, cacophonical, cacophonious, cacophonous

10. Not polished; uncut.

    a rough diamond

    Synonyms: unpolished

11. Harsh-tasting.

    rough wine

    1 more example

    the wine, rough as it is, more wholesome than the half-melted ices, flavored with unholy essences.

    1880, The Eclectic Magazine of Foreign Literature, Science, and Art, volume 40, page 833

    Synonyms: distasteful, unstomachable, distasteful, ill-flavored, mawkish, undrinkable, uneatable, unpalatable

12. IrelandUKcolloquialslangSomewhat ill; sick; in poor condition.

    Synonyms: poorly, sickly, unwell, ailing, bad, crank, crook, green about the gills

13. IrelandUKcolloquialslangUnwell due to alcohol; hungover.

    Synonyms: baked, cooked, hangoverish, Mondayish

14. Of or relating to the rough breathing in the Greek language.

plural roughs · alternative pronunciation spelling ruff

1. The unmowed part of a golf course.
2. 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 other down Wellington Street. "Fighting at Weybridge!"

   1898, H.G. Wells, The War of the Worlds, London: William Heinemann, page 124

3. ball gamesA 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.
4. The raw material from which faceted or cabochon gems are created.
5. A quick sketch, similar to a thumbnail but larger and more detailed, used for artistic brainstorming.
6. obsoleteBoisterous weather.

   In calms you fish; in roughs use songs and dances.

   1633, Phineas Fletcher, Eclog 1. Amyntas

7. A piece inserted in a horseshoe to keep the animal from slipping.

present singular third person roughs · participle present roughing · participle past roughed · past roughed · alternative pronunciation spelling ruff

1. To create in an approximate form.

   Rough in the shape first, then polish the details.

   1 more example

   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 the other a smaller vase, of the same type, but only just roughed out of the block.

   1907, Ronald M. Burrows, The Discoveries In Crete, page 90

2. intransitiveboxingTo 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 these rules.

   1938, California. State Athletic Commission, Rules, Regulations and Law Regulating Boxing and Wrestling (page 42)

3. hobbiesTo commit the offense of roughing, i.e. to punch another player.
4. To render rough; to roughen.
5. 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.

   1802, Charles James, A New and Enlarged Military Dictionary

6. To endure primitive conditions.

   to rough it

   2 more examples

   “[…]Oh, but my husband is never so happy as when he is travelling. He likes roughing it. . . . My husband. . . . My husband. . . .”

   1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in Bliss and Other Stories, London: Constable & Company, published 1920, →OCLC, page 280

   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.

   2013, Anne-Marie K. Kittiphanh, If Life Gave Me LEMONS, I Would Turn It into HONEY, →ISBN

7. transitiveTo roughen a horse's shoes to keep the animal from slipping.

comparative more rough · superlative most rough · alternative pronunciation spelling ruff

1. 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.

   1826, [Walter Scott], chapter IV, in Woodstock; Or, The Cavalier. […], volume II, Edinburgh: […] [James Ballantyne and Co.] for Archibald Constable and Co.; London: Longman, Rees, Orme, Brown, and Green, →OCLC, page 93

plural Roughs

1. A surname.