rough it

verb

To endure hard living conditions; to live without ordinary comforts.

“Out in the backwoods with only a tent and no radio or plumbing, they were really roughing it.”

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Meanings

verbrough it (third-person singular simple present roughs it, present participle roughing it, simple past and past participle roughed it)

present singular third person roughs it · participle present roughing it · participle past roughed it · past roughed it · alternative rough it out

  1. colloquialTo endure hard living conditions; to live without ordinary comforts.

    Out in the backwoods with only a tent and no radio or plumbing, they were really roughing it.

    1 more example

    I agree that boys ought to rough it; but when a boy is lame and very delicate, he roughs it sufficiently if he leaves home.

    1907 April, E[dward] M[organ] Forster, The Longest Journey, Edinburgh; London: William Blackwood and Sons, →OCLC, part I (Cambridge), page 31
Cite this entry
APA

rough it. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 3, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rough%20it

MLA

“rough it.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rough%20it. Accessed November 3, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “rough it,” accessed November 3, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/rough%20it.

Source: rough it on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.