rough

[ruhf]

adjective, rough·er, rough·est.

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.

harsh to the taste; sharp or astringent: a rough wine.

coarse, as food.

lacking culture or refinement: a rough, countrified manner.

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), roughed, rough·ing.

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), roughed, rough·ing.

to become rough, as a surface.

to behave roughly.

Idioms

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.

Origin of rough

before 1000; Middle English (adj. and noun); Old English rūh (adj.); cognate with Dutch ruig, German rauh

Related formsrough·ly, adverbrough·ness, nouno·ver·rough, adjectiveo·ver·rough·ly, adverbo·ver·rough·ness, noun

Can be confusedrough ruff

Synonyms for rough

1. irregular, jagged, bumpy, craggy. 2. hairy, bristly. 13. noisy, cacophonous, raucous. 16. impolite, uncivil, unpolished, rude.

Antonyms for rough

1. smooth, even, regular.

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2019

British Dictionary definitions for rough it

rough

adjective

(of a surface) not smooth; uneven or irregular

(of ground) covered with scrub, boulders, etc

denoting or taking place on uncultivated groundrough grazing; rough shooting

shaggy or hairy

turbulent; agitateda rough sea

(of the performance or motion of something) uneven; irregulara rough engine

(of behaviour or character) rude, coarse, ill mannered, inconsiderate, or violent

harsh or sharprough words

informal severe or unpleasanta rough lesson

(of work, a task, etc) requiring physical rather than mental effort

informal ill or physically upsethe felt rough after an evening of heavy drinking

unfair or unjustrough luck

harsh or grating to the ear

harsh to the taste

without refinement, luxury, etc

not polished or perfected in any detail; rudimentary; not elaboraterough workmanship; rough justice

not prepared or dressedrough gemstones

(of a guess, estimate, etc) approximate

Australian informal (of a chance) not good

having the sound of h; aspirated

rough on informal, mainly British

severe towards
unfortunate for (a person)

the 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 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 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 to live without the usual comforts or conveniences of life

Word Origin for rough

Old English rūh; related to Old Norse ruksa, Middle Dutch rūge, rūwe, German rauh

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012

Word Origin and History for rough it

rough

adj.

Old English ruh "rough, coarse (of cloth); hairy, shaggy; untrimmed, uncultivated," from West Germanic *rukhwaz "shaggy, hairy, rough" (cf. Middle Dutch ruuch, Dutch ruig, Old High German ruher, German rauh), from Proto-Germanic *rukhaz, from PIE *reue- "to smash, knock down, tear out, dig up" (cf. Sanskrit ruksah "rough;" Latin ruga "wrinkle," ruere "to rush, fall violently, collapse," ruina "a collapse;" Lithuanian raukas "wrinkle," rukti "to shrink").

The original -gh- sound was guttural, as in Scottish loch. Sense of "approximate" is first recorded c.1600. Of places, "riotous, disorderly, characterized by violent action," 1863. Rough draft is from 1690s. Rough-and-ready is from 1810, originally military; rough-and-tumble (1810) is from a style of free-fighting.

rough

late 15c., from rough (adj.). Related: Roughed; roughing. Phrase rough it "submit to hardships" (1768) is originally nautical:

To lie rough; to lie all night in one's clothes: called also roughing it. Likewise to sleep on the bare deck of a ship, when the person is commonly advised to chuse the softest plank. [Grose, "Dictionary of the Vulgar Tongue," 1788]

To rough out "shape or plan approximately" is from 1770. To rough up "make rough" is from 1763. To rough (someone) up "beat up, jostle violently" is from 1868. The U.S. football penalty roughing was originally a term from boxing (1866).

rough

c.1200, "broken ground," from rough (adj.). Meaning "a rowdy" is first attested 1837. Specific sense in golf is from 1901. Phrase in the rough "in an unfinished or unprocessed condition" (of timber, etc.) is from 1819.

Idioms and Phrases with rough it

rough it

Do without the usual comforts and conveniences, as in We spent our vacation roughing it in a log cabin. This idiom was first recorded in 1768. Mark Twain used it as the title of an account of his experiences in Nevada (Roughing It, 1872).

rough

In addition to the idioms beginning with rough

rough and ready
rough and tumble
rough it
rough on, be
rough out
rough up

also see:

diamond in the rough
ride roughshod over
take the rough with the smooth
when the going gets rough