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
Sometimes a strange "Destiny shapes our ends," he remembered reading, "rough-hew them as we may."
From Jack Winters' Gridiron Chums by Overton, Mark
"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
You know your Shakespeare, John, and he says most truly: 'There's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.'
From To Mars via The Moon An Astronomical Story by Wicks, Mark
To shape the ends of wood skewers, i. e., to point them, requires a degree of skill: any one can rough-hew them.
From A Logic Of Facts Or, Every-day Reasoning by Holyoake, George Jacob
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.
