rough

[ ruhf ]

/ rʌf /

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See synonyms for: rough / roughed / rougher / roughest on Thesaurus.com

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.

OTHER WORDS FOR rough

1 irregular, jagged, bumpy, craggy.

2 hairy, bristly.

13 noisy, cacophonous, raucous.

16 impolite, uncivil, unpolished, rude.

See synonyms for rough on Thesaurus.com

OPPOSITES FOR rough

1 smooth, even, regular.

See antonyms for rough on Thesaurus.com

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Idioms about rough

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

OTHER WORDS FROM rough

roughly, adverbroughness, nouno·ver·rough, adjectiveo·ver·rough·ly, adverb

o·ver·rough·ness, noun

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH rough

rough , ruff

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2022

How to use rough in a sentence

Geometry also predicted that if you fragmented a flat surface randomly, it would break into rough rectangles, and if you did the same in three dimensions, it would produce rough cubes.
Scientists Uncover the Universal Geometry of Geology|Joshua Sokol|November 19, 2020|Quanta Magazine
It’s been a rough few weeks for singer John Legend and cookbook author Chrissy Teigen, who suffered the devastating loss of their third child in September.
John Legend And Chrissy Teigen Are Holding On To Joy After Losing Their Son Jack|Jasmine Grant|November 11, 2020|Essence.com
That’s, unfortunately, just the reality of using limited data to come up with a rough estimate of a disease’s overall spread.
How bad is your state’s Covid-19 outbreak?|German Lopez|November 11, 2020|Vox
“This time next year we’ll be laughing,” her father liked to say, whenever the family hit a rough patch.
The inspiration for Maisie Dobbs? Jacqueline Winspear’s memoir offers charming clues|Zofia Smardz|November 10, 2020|Washington Post

Curl had some rough moments, too, as he was beat on a touchdown by Evan Engram, but the rookie out of Arkansas showed promise.
Hail or Fail: Washington commits five more turnovers than Daniel Jones in ugly loss to Giants|Scott Allen|November 9, 2020|Washington Post
If you call this roughness, I'm sorry, but this Tayyip Erdogan won't change.
Police Storm Istanbul’s Taksim Square|Mike Giglio|June 11, 2013|DAILY BEAST
After his ejection for unnecessary roughness, Suh also suffered a devastating blow to his reputation.
Metta World Peace, David Beckham, and More Flagrant Fouls in Sports|Brittany Jones-Cooper|April 24, 2012|DAILY BEAST
But for some there remains a brutality here, a roughness born of systematic, racialized oppression and desperate poverty.
The Oprah School on Trial|Gretchen L. Wilson|October 27, 2008|DAILY BEAST
The mere quality of smoothness on the canvas is of no consequence or value, any more than the mere quality of roughness is.
The Painter in Oil|Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst
Whether that roughness is a thing to be got rid of or not is something for the painter to decide for himself.
The Painter in Oil|Daniel Burleigh Parkhurst
Roughness of manner drives our friends from us, and prevents many from becoming friends.
Charles Duran|The Author of The Waldos
The roughness of the cheeks gave him an extremely agreeable sensation, and he sought every opportunity of renewing this sensation.
The Sexual Life of the Child|Albert Moll
And talk they did, as well as the roughness of the road and the speed at which they must travel would allow.
Fair Margaret|H. Rider Haggard

British Dictionary definitions for rough

rough

/ (rʌf) /

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

Derived forms of rough

roughness, noun

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

Other Idioms and Phrases with rough

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

rough

OTHER WORDS FOR rough

OPPOSITES FOR rough

Idioms about rough

Origin of rough

OTHER WORDS FROM rough

WORDS THAT MAY BE CONFUSED WITH rough

Words related to rough

How to use rough in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for rough

Derived forms of rough

Word Origin for rough

Other Idioms and Phrases with rough