First recorded in 1935–40
First recorded in 1965–70
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
Davis further objected to music producer David Foster’s insistence on an elaborate backing remix for the song, having fallen in love with the first rough cut, which had been recorded live on set.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 22, 2026
I showed Paul 45 minutes of a very early rough cut to convince him that what we were doing was in the spirit of what we always discussed.
From Salon ● May 23, 2025
He’s seen the movie only twice; once in a rough cut and then again on an airplane.
From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 6, 2025
That’s also what Disney executives asked with concern about the idiosyncratic stop-motion animation musical when they saw a rough cut.
From New York Times ● Oct. 25, 2023
“Which I doubt;” His voice was oddly and beautifully rough cut, as some small boys’ voices are.
From "Nine Stories" by J. D. Salinger
The rough-cut sandstone church, with its bright red doors and stained-glass windows, was built in 1904 to house the state’s oldest Methodist congregation, and occupies a prominent corner lot a few blocks north of downtown.
From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2023
Don’t miss the shop’s versions of khoresh bamieh, a Persian okra stew, or Lebanese batata harra, a rough-cut potato dish electrified with garlic and chile flakes.
From Washington Post ● Oct. 18, 2021
She represents a new kind of Condé Nast, one built on a kind of rough-cut authenticity, but her popularity has drawn attention to the problem of representation.
From New York Times ● Jun. 13, 2020
By the time shooting has finished, Lame is already well on her way to having a complete rough-cut assembly of the film.
From Los Angeles Times ● Dec. 31, 2019
Most of the buildings were constructed from rough-cut lumber, some from little more than tar paper tacked over a wooden framework.
From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown
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.
