sleep rough

present singular third person sleeps rough · participle present sleeping rough · participle past slept rough · past slept rough

1. idiomaticOf a homeless person, to sleep outdoors, particularly as opposed to sleeping in a shelter or similar.

   He was nervy and restless, sick of waiting and sick of hiding. He had slept rough again the last two nights, once in Hyde Park and once under the arches at Charing Cross.

   1982, Ken Follett, chapter 12, in The Man from St. Petersburg, New York, N.Y.: Penguin Books, published 2017, →ISBN, page 237

   5 more examples

   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

   [...] I was quite taken out of myself and vowed a vow there to go to Rome on Pilgrimage and see all Europe which the Christian Faith has saved; and I said, "I will start from the place where I served in arms for my sins; I will walk all the way and take advantage of no wheeled thing; I will sleep rough and cover thirty miles a day, and I will hear Mass every morning; and I will be present at High Mass in St. Peter's on the Feast of St Peter and St Paul."

   1902, H[ilaire] Belloc, “Praise of This Book”, in The Path to Rome, New York, N.Y.: Longmans, Green and Co.; London: George Allen, page viii, →OCLC

   To be found sleeping in a public place is like being found without visible means of support—an indictable offence. Further, it is an indication of sin. "He sleeps rough"—therefore he is, doubtless, a thief, a drunkard, and a liar. There seems no reason why similar evidence should not be brought in a contrary sense to prove a man's worth.

   1926, Rose Macaulay, A Casual Commentary, New York, N.Y.: Boni & Liveright, →OCLC, page 101

   There is no evidence that anyone sleeps rough or drinks methanol in Oldham. [...] A voluntary organisation, the Bayswater Housing Association, has recently opened a couple of terraced houses for "the homeless".

   1975, John Stewart, “Social Services”, in Of No Fixed Abode: Vagrancy and the Welfare State, Manchester: Manchester University Press, →ISBN, page 87

   I am glad to hear what the Government are doing to reduce the number of people sleeping rough. It is a disgrace that anyone sleeps rough. An average of 3 per cent. of local housing owned by Labour local authorities is unoccupied, and in Islington it is 6 per cent. Why cannot it be used by people who are sleeping rough?

   1998 February 3, Jonathan Sayeed, “Rough Sleepers”, in House of Commons Hansard (House of Commons of the United Kingdom), volume 305, London: Parliament of the United Kingdom, archived from the original on 04 Oct 2020

   Synonyms: lie rough, live rough