rough-hew
Americanverb (used with object)
-
to hew (timber, stone, etc.) roughly or without smoothing or finishing.
-
to shape roughly; give crude form to.
verb
-
to cut or hew (timber, stone, etc) roughly without finishing the surface
-
Also: roughcast. to shape roughly or crudely
Etymology
Origin of rough-hew
First recorded in 1520–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It also engages the idea that some things may be hard-wired into our blood, echoing Hamlet’s phrase about how there’s a “divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”
From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2016
Indeed, character consists in little acts, well and honorably performed; daily life being the quarry from which we build it up, and rough-hew the habits which form it.
From How to Get on in the World A Ladder to Practical Success by Calhoon, Major A.R.
Every man had the right to rough-hew his own life.
From Swirling Waters by Rittenberg, Max
"There is a hand that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will."
From Hubert's Wife A Story for You by Lee, Minnie Mary
But "there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will."
From Home-Life of the Lancashire Factory Folk during the Cotton Famine by Waugh, Edwin
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.
