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rough
[ ruhf ]
adjective
- having a coarse or uneven surface, as from projections, irregularities, or breaks; not smooth:
rough, red hands;
a rough road.
- shaggy or coarse:
a dog with a rough coat.
- (of an uninhabited region or large land area) steep or uneven and covered with high grass, brush, trees, stones, etc.:
to hunt over rough country.
- acting with or characterized by violence:
Boxing is a rough sport.
- characterized by unnecessary violence or infractions of the rules:
It was a rough prize fight.
- violently disturbed or agitated; turbulent, as water or the air:
a rough sea.
- having a violently irregular motion; uncomfortably or dangerously uneven:
The plane had a rough flight in the storm.
- stormy or tempestuous, as wind or weather.
- sharp or harsh:
a rough temper.
- unmannerly or rude:
his rough and churlish manner;
They exchanged rough words.
- disorderly or riotous:
a rough mob.
- difficult or unpleasant:
to have a rough time of it.
- harsh to the ear; grating or jarring, as sounds.
Synonyms: raucous, cacophonous, noisy
- harsh to the taste; sharp or astringent:
a rough wine.
- coarse, as food.
- lacking culture or refinement:
a rough, countrified manner.
Synonyms: unpolished, rude, uncivil, impolite
- without refinements, luxuries, or ordinary comforts or conveniences:
rough camping.
- requiring exertion or strength rather than intelligence or skill:
rough manual labor.
- not elaborated, perfected, or corrected; unpolished, as language, verse, or style:
a rough draft.
- made or done without any attempt at exactness, completeness, or thoroughness; approximate or tentative:
a rough guess.
- crude, unwrought, nonprocessed, or unprepared:
rough rice.
- Phonetics. uttered with aspiration; having the sound of h; aspirated.
noun
- something that is rough, especially rough ground.
- Golf. any part of the course bordering the fairway on which the grass, weeds, etc., are not trimmed.
- the unpleasant or difficult part of anything.
- anything in its crude or preliminary form, as a drawing.
- Chiefly British. a rowdy; ruffian.
adverb
- in a rough manner; roughly.
verb (used with object)
- to make rough; roughen.
- to give a beating to, manhandle, or subject to physical violence (often followed by up ):
The mob roughed up the speaker.
- to subject to some rough, preliminary process of working or preparation (often followed by down, off, or out ):
to rough off boards.
- to sketch roughly or in outline (often followed by in or out ):
to rough out a diagram;
to rough in the conversation of a novel.
- Sports. to subject (a player on the opposing team) to unnecessary physical abuse, as in blocking or tackling:
The team was penalized 15 yards for roughing the kicker.
verb (used without object)
- to become rough, as a surface.
- to behave roughly.
rough
/ rʌf /
adjective
- (of a surface) not smooth; uneven or irregular
- (of ground) covered with scrub, boulders, etc
- denoting or taking place on uncultivated ground
rough grazing
rough shooting
- shaggy or hairy
- turbulent; agitated
a rough sea
- (of the performance or motion of something) uneven; irregular
a rough engine
- (of behaviour or character) rude, coarse, ill mannered, inconsiderate, or violent
- harsh or sharp
rough words
- informal.severe or unpleasant
a rough lesson
- (of work, a task, etc) requiring physical rather than mental effort
- informal.ill or physically upset
he felt rough after an evening of heavy drinking
- unfair or unjust
rough luck
- harsh or grating to the ear
- harsh to the taste
- without refinement, luxury, etc
- not polished or perfected in any detail; rudimentary; not elaborate
rough workmanship
rough justice
- not prepared or dressed
rough gemstones
- (of a guess, estimate, etc) approximate
- informal.(of a chance) not good
- having the sound of h ; aspirated
- rough on informal.rough on
- severe towards
- unfortunate for (a person)
- the rough side of one's tonguethe rough side of one's tongue harsh words; a reprimand, rebuke, or verbal attack
noun
- rough ground
- a sketch or preliminary piece of artwork
- an unfinished or crude state (esp in the phrase in the rough )
- the roughthe rough golf the part of the course bordering the fairways where the grass is untrimmed
- tennis squash badminton the side of a racket on which the binding strings form an uneven line
- informal.a rough or violent person; thug
- the unpleasant side of something (esp in the phrase take the rough with the smooth )
adverb
- in a rough manner; roughly
- sleep roughsleep rough to spend the night in the open; be without a home or without shelter
verb
- tr to make rough; roughen
- tr; foll by out, in, etc to prepare (a sketch, report, piece of work, etc) in preliminary form
- rough it informal.rough it to live without the usual comforts or conveniences of life
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Derived Forms
- ˈroughness, noun
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Other Words From
- roughly adverb
- roughness noun
- over·rough adjective
- over·roughly adverb
- over·roughness noun
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Word History and Origins
Origin of rough1
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Word History and Origins
Origin of rough1
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Idioms and Phrases
- in the rough, in a rough, crude, or unfinished state:
The country has an exciting potential, but civilization there is still in the rough.
- rough it, to live without the customary comforts or conveniences; endure rugged conditions:
We really roughed it on our fishing trip.
More idioms and phrases containing rough
- diamond in the rough
- ride roughshod over
- take the rough with the smooth
- when the going gets rough
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Example Sentences
It started out rough, with several calls being dropped before everyone realized that even phone directions for public comment needed to be translated before people start providing public comments.
It’s been a rough road so far, but if there is one brightening light at the end of the tunnel, it’s that vaccinations are continuing to push forward.
While the fidelity and speed of the system are still a long way from those achieved by state-of-the-art devices, a lot of this is down to the rough and ready experimental setup the researchers used and should be possible to improve on.
Planes couldn’t fly that morning because of weather, and the water was rough.
McIlroy did not call an official after checking on his ball in the rough Saturday at the 18th hole.
Terrorism is bad news anywhere, but especially rough on Odessa, where the city motto seems to be “make love, not war.”
Gurley was gunned down on Nov. 20, when a pair of cops was patrolling the rough housing project.
Originally conceived by author Clarence E. Mulford in 1904, Hopalong was crude, rough-talking, and dangerous.
CEO Michael Lynton showed a rough cut of the movie to U.S. officials before moving ahead.
Hitchcock loved to tell stories, elaborate, complicated rough drafts for movies he would never make.
The camp grew still, except for the rough and ready cook pottering about the fire, boiling buffalo-meat and mixing biscuit-dough.
It was only a hut of rough boards, carelessly knocked together for a shepherd's temporary home.
He reached up for her big, rough straw hat that hung on a peg outside the door, and put it on her head.
England proclaimed a rough indignation at the demand for Gibraltar, which Austria had made in behalf of Spain.
The advance had to be carefully made, for the country was rough, wooded, and covered with a dense undergrowth of bushes.
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Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
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