α. late Middle English roughycasted.
β. 1500s roughecaste, 1500s– roughcast, 1600s ruffcast.
roughcastadj.n.
/ˈrʌfkɑːst/, /ˈrʌfkast/, U.S. /ˈrəfˌkæst/ A. adj.
1. Of metal: roughly or imperfectly moulded or cast.
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1423 in J. Blair & N. Ramsay Eng. Medieval Industries (1991) v. 83 [Nicholas Broker, coppersmith of London,..bequeathed 300 barrels] de auricalco cum eorum platis roughycasted.
1654 E. Gayton Pleasant Notes Don Quixot iii. i. 67 These Yanguesians did but act the part of Goldsmiths, who with much labour, polish, and furbish up the splendor of rough-cast metals.
1887 Jrnl. Iron & Steel Inst. 2 127 Evidence of the toughness of the metal in its rough-cast condition.
1906 J. G. Horner Henley's Encycl. Pract. Engin. III. 223/1 After casting it is necessary to bore the interior, for rough-cast metal would not give a true surface to the chilled work.
1995 R. A. Palmatier Speaking of Animals 288 Pig, a rough-cast ingot of iron.
2. † c. In extended use: surfaced as though with roughcast. Chiefly with with. Obsolete.
a. Of a wall, building, etc.: plastered with roughcast (sense B. 2a). In early use also as past participle.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > plaster > [adjective] > rough-cast or pebble-dashed
roughcast1519
pebble-dashed1839
rendered1901
pebble-dash1911
1519 W. Horman Vulgaria xxix. f. 241 Some men, wyll haue theyr wallys plastered, some pergetted,..some roughe caste.
1579 T. North tr. Plutarch Liues 203 Of all his houses he had abroade in the contry, he had not one wall-plastered, nor rough cast.
1617 F. Moryson Itinerary i. 188 The building of the City is..of unpolished stone with the outside plastered, and rough cast.
1655 T. Fuller Church-hist. Brit. i. 7 White-limed houses exceed those which are only rough-cast.
1704 J. Swift Tale of Tub xi. 208 He rubbed..against a rough-cast Wall.
1791 A. Seward Let. 30 July (1811) III. 99 The whole wide expanse is dotted over by white rough-cast cottages.
1830 M. R. Mitford Our Village IV. 237 A low irregular white rough-cast building.
1861 J. M. Neale Notes on Dalmatia 97 Arbors running along the top of rough-cast walls.
1922 L. Weaver Small Country Houses of To-day (ed. 3) I. xix. 87 The ordinary practice in these days is to restrict the use of whitewash to brick or rough-cast walls and rough masonry.
1997 S. Unwin Analysing Archit. 26/2 Le Corbusier..illuminated the side altars with daylight softened by its reflection off white roughcast walls.
b. Consisting of roughcast (sense B. 2a); (also) having the texture of roughcast.Earliest in figurative context.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > plaster > [adjective] > rough-cast or pebble-dashed > consisting of rough-cast
roughcast1599
1599 T. Nashe Lenten Stuffe 2 With light cost of rough cast rethorieke it may be tollerablely playstered ouer.
c1670 A. Wood Life (1891) I. 130 Two or three stones and some rough-cast stuff were blown from off the tower.
1824 New Monthly Mag. 11 370 A decent-looking inn with a rough-cast coating.
1854 G. Barrett Poor Man's Home, & Rich Man's Palace 38 This rough-cast coat may be followed with a lime-wash of any desired color.
1911 Encycl. Brit. XXI. 785/1 Rough-cast or Pebble-dash plastering is a rough form of external plastering in much use for country houses.
1950 Times 26 June 9/4 Rough-cast paint for the outside coating of buildings of brick and cement.
1970 P. White Let. 1 Mar. (1994) xi. 360 I must investigate it when I am next in London, but expect it is just acres of that awful outer-suburb roughcast Tudor.
2004 Tool & Machinery Catal. 2005 (Axminster Power Tool Centre Ltd.) xi. 16/1 Used to give a roughcast or texture finish to walls, it's as well when buying a Tyrolean gun to purchase one made in the Tyrol.
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1600 P. Holland tr. Livy Rom. Hist. iv. xxiii. 1381 Mamurra Formianus, maister of Caesars Carpenters in Fraunce, was the first Romane that adorned and set out his house which hee had in Coelius hill, with marble rough-cast.
1606 J. Sylvester tr. G. de S. Du Bartas Deuine Weekes & Wks. (new ed.) ii. iv. 76 Where Wals are rough-cast with the richest Stones.
1650 H. Vaughan Silex Scintillans sig. A4 My walke a monstrous, mountain'd thing Rough-cast with Rocks, and snow.
1681 N. Grew Musæum Regalis Societatis i. iv. iv. 76 The Shell underneath or within is white: without, it is all over rough-cast.
1786 S. Blamire Poet. Wks. (1842) 99 With bark the nest is roughcast round.
3. figurative (with allusion to senses A. 1 and A. 2a). Roughly or crudely designed, shaped, or made; of a rough, imperfect type.
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the mind > goodness and badness > inferiority or baseness > imperfection > [adjective] > in specific way: defective or faulty > crude or undeveloped > rough or rude > roughly formed or made
rude1488
rough-hewn1530
rough1561
rough-hewed1563
roughcast1588
rough-wrought?1665
rough and tumble1855
1588 W. Rankins Eng. Ape Ep. Ded. sig. a2 My rough cast conceit of Hell.
1591 ‘A. Foulweather’ Wonderfull Prognost. in Wks. (Grosart) II. 151 Vttering in their furye such rough cast eloquence.
1656 A. Cowley Davideis i. 20 in Poems He smooth'd the rough-cast Moons imperfect mold.
1693 J. Dryden Disc. conc. Satire in J. Dryden et al. tr. Juvenal Satires p. xxii This rough-cast unhewn Poetry, was instead of Stage-Plays for the space of an hundred and twenty years together.
1714 R. Fiddes Pract. Disc. (ed. 2) II. 367 This brightest jewel and ornament of human nature is so rough cast.
a1770 T. Chatterton Compl. Wks. (1971) I. 366 Your Logics on the rough cast Side.
1833 P. Leonard Rec. Voy. Western Coast Afr. i. 16 You ascend a road so called,—a rough cast path, narrow and full of asperities,—to the top of the prominence.
1880 J. S. Stallybrass tr. J. Grimm Teutonic Mythol. I. 103 I can only look upon Cæsar's statements as a half-true and roughcast opinion.
1892 J. Tait Mind in Matter (ed. 2) 159 The rough-cast ‘goodness’ of the bonus homo of Christianised heathenism.
1901 Critic (N.Y.) Sept. 275/1 As the humbler Tuscans made their rough-cast gods out of the drenched earth, from which they themselves arose, [etc.].
1968 Punch 24 Apr. 605/2 That roughcast and culturally illiterate genius.
1991 D. Harington Choiring of Trees 125 They were an anticipation of the roughcast yeomen she would encounter in Newton Country.
4. Of glass: having one surface rough or textured. See sense B. 2c.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > glass and glass-like materials > [adjective] > other types of glass
blownc1425
Bohemian1682
grounded1698
soft1758
unsilvered1772
navelledc1817
drawn-out1822
muffled1847
ambitty1856
muffed1868
roughcast1868
Sandwich1881
fumé1883
hand-blown1885
peach-blow1886
opaque1907
mould-blown1925
offhand1941
1868 Achley's Builders' Price Bk. 1869 43 (advt.) Robert P. Tate,..Dealer in all kinds of Window Glass, Crown, Sheet, Polished and Rough Cast Plate.
1875 Jrnl. Soc. Arts 6 Aug. 807/2 Window Glass of Every Description...British plate, rough cast plate, patent plate, patent, rolled plate.
1912 Times 2 Oct. 30/5 The covering consists of ¼ in. rough cast glass and 6lb. lead.
1939 Archit. Rev. 85 99 (caption) Bent dome of ‘rough-cast’ glass used, at the Saint-Gobain pavilion, Paris 1937, as a simple and elegant alternative to the ordinary opaque basin.
1987 Which? Aug. 379/2 Wired glass..is available from glaziers either rough cast (for privacy)..or clear and polished.
2001 Art Room Catal. Autumn 49/3 Black and transparent panels of rough cast leaded glass diffuse and direct the glow.
B. n.
1. A rough sketch or outline; a crudely formed model or pattern. N.E.D. (1909) commented: ‘Properly in two words, as in the earlier quots.’
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society > communication > representation > a plastic or graphic representation > graphic representation > drawing plans or diagrams > [noun] > a plan or diagram > rough sketch
delineation1551
scantling1567
roughcast1579
perigraph1753
1579 S. Gosson Schoole of Abuse f. 6v To shew you that in a rough cast, which I see in a cloude.
1641 J. Milton Reason Church-govt. 30 If we look at his native towardlinesse in the roughcast without breeding.
1644 K. Digby Two Treat. Ded. sig. ãivv A loose modell and roughcast of what I designe to do.
1813 J. Forsyth Remarks Excurs. Italy 158 The Doric has no metops, and its arch is too low for its columns; the Ionic repeats the entablature of the Doric; the third order is but a rough-cast of the Corinthian.
1855 G. H. Lewes Life & Wks. Goethe II. v. v. 61 The rough draft of the two first acts had been written at Frankfurt, in the year 1775; and a rough cast of the whole was made at Weimar, in 1782.
1925 M. Wilkinson Way of Makers 247 On the left-hand page is found the first rough cast of stanzas i, ii, iii, iv, and vi.
1973 D. Nicholson-Smith tr. L. Laplanche & J. B. Pontalis Lang. Psycho-Anal. 251 The mirror phase is said to represent a genetic moment: the setting up of the first roughcast of the ego.
2. † b. In extended use: a covering resembling roughcast. Obsolete.
a. A semi-fluid composition of lime (or later cement), water, and fine gravel, used as roughly textured plaster on the outside of a building. Cf. pebble-dash n.Roughcast is applied by being thrown at the wall with a float (originally a wooden float), then smoothed with a wide brush.Earliest in figurative context. Cf. sense B. 2b.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > plaster > [noun] > rough-cast or pebble-dash
daubing1382
roughcasting1469
temper1594
roughcast1596
rough mortar1703
rough coating1791
slapdash1796
pebble-dashing1826
pebble-dash1831
harl1869
1596 A. Copley Fig for Fortune 61 Many a faire gem, Corall, Amber, and Aggats were among them, Which such bright rough-cast ouer all incrusted T'was heauen to see what Rain-bowe rayes it yeelded.
1600 W. Shakespeare Midsummer Night's Dream iii. i. 63 Let him haue some plaster, or som lome, or some rough cast, about him, to signifie wall. View more context for this quotation
1663 B. Gerbier Counsel to Builders 79 Ruff cast upon Lath being very well done, is worth eighteen pence the yard.
1702 R. Neve Apopiroscopy i. 17 A man should not see any Rough-cast or Plastering to rise in Blisters, and be subject to peel off.
1789 M. Madan in New & Literal Transl. Juvenal & Persius II. 410 The plaster, parget or rough cast of a wall.
1810 W. Wordsworth Prose Wks. (1876) II. 277 The house must be covered with rough-cast, otherwise it cannot be kept dry.
1842 J. Gwilt Encycl. Archit. ii. iii. §8. 589 The roughcast is a composition of small gravel, finely washed,..and mixed with pure lime and water in a state of semi-fluid consistency.
1883 I. Banks Forbidden to Marry I. v. 85 Black beams intersecting..the weather-stained roughcast.
1913 Everyday Uses Portland Cement (ed. 3) 88 In some districts rough cast is known by the name of pebble dashing... There is some little distinction, however.
1949 Rotarian (U.S.) May 22/3 Imagination boggles at what modernistic..concrete outrages, with cracking ‘rough-cast’, will look like in 100 years!
1997 S. Bell Design for Outdoor Recreation 68 Cinderblock..can be a cheap material for construction, and can be clad with roughcast or stone.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > plaster > [noun] > other kinds of plaster
lime-slab1608
roughcast1609
lime and hair1626
parge1649
chunam1687
impastation1728
stuff1812
mastic paint1839
parget1842
Parian cement1858
Madras stucco1859
Keene's cement1869
gatch1886
Parian1886
1609 J. Davies Holy Roode sig. D2v A Rough-cast of thicke Gore his Body shrouds.
1648 J. Beaumont Psyche xviii. cclxix. 367 Her scurfie Rough-cast scaled off, and all Her Skin to fresh and tender Smoothnesse left.
1658 J. Rowland tr. T. Moffett Theater of Insects in Topsell's Hist. Four-footed Beasts (rev. ed.) 922 [The wasp's nest is] well fenced above with a certain rough-cast to keep off all wind and weather.
1755 World 2 Jan. 3 The inferior class of women, who always ape their betters, make use of a sort of rough-cast.
1769 E. Griffith Delicate Distress x, in R. Griffith & E. Griffith Two Novels I. 42 There was such an aukward reserve about poor Thornton, for the first three days he spent at Woodfort, that I looked upon him as a Hottentot: but that rough cast is now worn off.
c. Glass which is rolled or cast in such a way that one surface has a rough or textured finish.
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society > occupation and work > materials > derived or manufactured material > glass and glass-like materials > [noun] > glass > other types of glass
mirror glass1440
Venice glass1527
green glass1559
bubble glass1591
hard glass1597
window glass1606
bottle glass1626
looking-glass plate1665
opal glass1668
flint-glass1683
broad-glass1686
jealous glass1703
plate glass1728
Newcastle glass1734
flint1755
German sheet glass1777
Réaumur's porcelain1777
cut glass1800
Vauxhall1830
muslin glass1837
Venetian glass1845
latticinio1855
quartz glass1861
muff glass1865
thallium glass1868
St. Gobain glass1870
frost blue1873
crackle-glass1875
opaline1875
crackle-ware1881
amberina1883
opal1885
Jena1892
Holophane1893
roughcast1893
soda glass1897
opalite1899
milchglas1907
pâte de verre1907
Pyrex1915
silica glass1916
soda-lime glass1917
Vita-glass1925
peach-blow1930
borosilicate glass1933
Vitrolite1937
twin plate1939
sintered glass1940
gold-film1954
Plyglass1956
pyroceram1957
float glass1959
solar glass1977
1893 J. P. Allen Pract. Building Constr. xxi. 341 The glass, when at a white heat, is placed on a table and rolled to the required thickness ; after which it is polished over or left as rough-cast... Rough-cast—the resulting material without the polishing—has a rather wavy appearance, but is otherwise as strong and advantageous as the polished plate.
1962 Gloss. Terms Glass Industry (B.S.I.) 31 Rough cast, rolled translucent glass, one surface of which has a definite texture, made by rolling molten glass either on a table or between rollers.
2003 M. Y. H. Bangash & T. Bangash Elem. Spatial Struct. vii. 461 Translucent glass..comprises the following rolled and cast types: (a) patterned..(d) rough cast (e) tinted rough cast [etc.].
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
roughcastv.
/ˈrʌfkɑːst/, /ˈrʌfkast/, U.S. /ˈrəfˌkæst/ 1.
a. transitive. To coat, cover, or fill in with roughcast (roughcast n. 2a).
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society > occupation and work > industry > building or constructing > surfacing or cladding > clad or cover [verb (transitive)] > plaster > with specific material
daub1382
cloamc1460
rowcast1500
clay?1523
dab1577
roughcast1584
cloom1609
chunam1687
sparkle1805
harl1806
slub1823
1584 in R. Willis & J. W. Clark Archit. Hist. Univ. Cambr. (1886) I. 294 To Parkes seruant for roughcasting and filling the place behind the armes and Creast.
1639 tr. J. A. Comenius Porta Linguarum Reserata (new ed.) xlviii. §526. sig. P6 With his trowell hee rough-casteth all over with plastering; to wit, with slaked lime..and with parjet.
1758 Philos. Trans. 1757 (Royal Soc.) 50 199 The steeple is..roughcasted on the outside.
1797 F. Burney Let. 27 July in Jrnls. & Lett. (1973) III. 332 Our Cottage is now in the act of being rough cast.
1833 J. C. Loudon Encycl. Cottage Archit. §478 It is brought to an even surface by rough-casting it with a mixture of lime and fine gravel.
1875 W. McIlwraith Guide Wigtownshire 31 Some of the houses have been carefully rough-cast and white-washed.
1930 K. E. Innes & M. R. Brailsford tr. M. Granet Chinese Civilization ii. 243 The owners of large houses were obliged (in 563 B.C.) to rough-cast their walls.
1996 Victorian Soc. Ann. 1995 40/2 The walls were to have been roughcast with Portland stone dressings at the angle buttresses and entrance bay.
b. transitive. In extended use. Now rare.
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1593 T. Nashe Christs Teares f. 72 With blacke boyling Pitch, rough cast ouer her counterfeite red and white.
1609 J. Davies Humours Heau'n on Earth 228 Rogh-cast the skin of smooth-fac'd glozing Guile With burning blisters to consume the same.
1640 W. Prynne Lord Bishops ii. sig. C Thus did they incrustare vitia, parget, or roughcast their vices.
1793 Nat. Hist. Birds, Fish, Insects & Reptiles I. 8 The blackbird and the lapwing, after they have made their nest, rough-cast the inside with a slight covering of clay or mortar.
1849 J. Ruskin Seven Lamps Archit. ii. 49 Leave your walls as bare as a planed board, or build them of baked mud and chopped straw;..but do not rough-cast them with falsehood.
1855 G. Brown Personal Adventure S. Afr. v. 77 This man was completely masked, having his face literally plastered over, or..rough cast with red clay.
1913 A. F. Irvine My Lady of Chimney-corner 107 May yer bread foriver be rough-casted wi' butther!
2. transitive. To mould, fashion, or shape roughly; to prepare in a rough or preliminary form.Chiefly with allusion to the casting of metal; cf. roughcast adj. 1.
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the world > space > shape > shape or give shape to [verb (transitive)] > shape roughly
roughcast1586
rough1770
the world > existence and causation > creation > [verb (transitive)] > fashion, shape, or form > roughly
roughcast1586
to rough out1738
rough1770
1586 T. Bowes in tr. P. de la Primaudaye French Acad. I. Ep. Ded. sig. *vj v This Platonical Academie & Schoole of Moral Philosophy, which..was raised vp, and set togither in France, and is newly rough-cast (as you see) by an English workeman.
1614 T. Overbury et al. Characters in Wife now Widdow (4th impr.) sig. E4 My Taylor [printed Talyor] is a creature made vp out of shreds, that were pared off from Adam, when hee was rough cast.
a1658 J. Cleveland Clievelandi Vindiciæ (1677) 58 Nor bodily, nor ghostly Negro could Roughcast thy Figure in a sadder mold.
1751 Bp. W. Warburton Lett. (1809) 85 I have so imperfect an idea of my subject, and rough-cast my composition so loosely, that my works, if they escape damning, are yet in a state of purgatory.
1835 W. Irving in Life & Lett. (1866) III. 72 I have commenced, and have rough-cast several of the chapters.
1877 U. Barre Avondale III. vi. 238 A draft of their proposed new measure on taxation had been rough cast.
1904 C. G. Hartley Rec. Spanish Painting ii. 13 All that is essentially Spanish in the people was rough-cast during these years.
1957 G. F. Howe Northwest Afr. x. 185 There had been no time even for precise forging of the Allied military instrument, much less for polishing it. It was rough cast in the proper mold and used with that fact in mind.
1996 J. de Mylius in S. H. Rossel Hans Christian Andersen iii. 197 Andersen uses Liszt to rough-cast a philosophy of art.
Derivatives
ˈroughcaster n. a workman who applies roughcast.
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society > occupation and work > worker > workers according to type of work > manual or industrial worker > builder > [noun] > plasterer or rough-caster
daubera1382
plasterer1440
pargenar1501
dirt-dauber?1518
pargeter1538
roughcaster1594
spargener1600
seiler1672
smear1725
tarras-layer1819
parge-worker1908
1594 Stanford Churchwarden's Accts. in Antiquary (1888) 17 211 Itm. to the roughcaster, xxvjs., viijd.
1854 Gentlemans' Mag Sept. 255/1 Carpenters and roughcasters were constantly employed in attending to the repairs and decorations.
1933 S. Putnam tr. L. Pirandello One, None & Hundred-thousand 159 He let fly at me his old rough-caster's mallet.
2008 Express (Scotland) (Nexis) 8 Aug. 72 Skilled tradesmen—brickies, a stonemason, plasterer and roughcaster—have been involved.
This entry has been updated (OED Third Edition, March 2011; most recently modified version published online March 2022).
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adj.n.1423
v.1584