rough diamond

plural rough diamonds

1. Synonym of diamond in the rough.

   Depardieu will always remain in France’s collective imagination as a rough diamond, saved from a life of delinquency by the power of the French language and the great texts of literature and theatre.

   2023 December 31, Agnès Poirier, “Evoking genius to defend ‘dark stars’ like Gérard Depardieu looks very French – and it is”, in The Observer, →ISSN

   1 more example

   By what power he drew after him the hearts of the roughest, and the Tail Twisters counted in their ranks some rough diamonds indeed, was a mystery to both skipper and C.O., who learned from the regimental chaplain that Bobby was considerably more in request in the hospital tents than the Reverend John Emery.

   1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 148

   Synonyms: diamond in the rough