rough
/rʌf
/adjective
1Having an uneven or irregular surface; not smooth or level: they had to carry the victim across the rough, stony ground her skin felt dry and rough...
- The next day I placed the figure upright on a piece of 400 grit sandpaper and smoothed out the rough surface of the putty.
- I could feel the movement, the change in the vibrations as iron-bound wheels went from a rough surface to a smoother one and then back to the former.
- Mold spores adhere more tightly to the rough surfaces than to the smooth skin of undamaged kernels.
Synonyms
uneven, irregular, bumpy, stony, rocky, broken, rugged, jaggy, craggy;
rutted, pitted, rutty
coarse, bristly, scratchy, prickly;
shaggy, hairy, hirsute, bushy, fuzzy
gnarled, knotty, lumpy, knobbly, nodular
rare nodulous, nodose
dry, leathery, weather-beaten;
chapped, chafed, calloused, scaly, scabrous
technical furfuraceous
1.1Denoting the face of a tennis or squash racket on which the loops formed from the stringing process project (used as a call when the racket is spun to decide the right to serve first or to choose ends).
2(Of a person or their behaviour) not gentle; violent or boisterous: pushchairs should be capable of withstanding rough treatment...
- I have to admit it excited me the way he was rough and aggressive.
- He was a rough man, but out of his venality and his bestial nature erupted this divine expression on the canvas.
- It was a busy day and the rough customers were more than a little rowdy that evening.
Synonyms
violent, brutal, vicious;
aggressive, belligerent, pugnacious, thuggish;
boisterous, rowdy, disorderly, unruly, unrestrained, wild, riotous, undisciplined, unmanageable
informal ugly
Scottish informal radge
careless, clumsy, inept, unskilful
boorish, loutish, oafish, brutish, coarse, crude, uncouth, rough-hewn, roughcast, vulgar, unrefined, unladylike, ungentlemanly, uncultured, ill-bred, ill-mannered, unmannerly, impolite, churlish, discourteous, uncivil, ungracious, rude, brusque, blunt, curt
2.1(Of an area or occasion) characterized by violent behaviour: the workmen hate going to the rough estates...
- Kim thought for a moment and then remembered what Rosie had said about wanting her baby to grow up in a loving family and not on some rough London estate.
- Living in a relatively rough part of town, I wasn't allowed out an awful lot.
- It is a very rough place and rarely does anyone from this area go there.
2.2(Of weather or the sea) wild and stormy: the lifeboat crew braved rough seas to rescue a couple...
- We heard that the sea was rough over the Channel and did not expect you until the end of the week.
- I do not think the man will come today; the seas are rough, and the horizon shows more storms to come.
- ‘This does not bode well with me,’ James said as he held his rifle as though it were a life preserver in rough seas.
Synonyms
turbulent, stormy, storm-tossed, tempestuous, violent, heavy, heaving, raging, choppy, agitated
informal rolly
stormy, wild, tempestuous, squally, wet, rainy, windy, blustery;
foul, filthy, nasty, inclement, unpleasant, disagreeable
3Not finished tidily or decoratively; plain and basic: the customers sat at rough wooden tables...
- She had spotted him sitting in one corner, dark except for the candle on the table, which was dripping hot wax onto the rough, wooden table.
- The walls, as in the rest of the house, are finished in traditional rough plaster that complements the timber doors and architraves.
- If you think the finish is somewhat rough, you are right, but there is a good reason for this.
3.1Put together as a temporary measure; makeshift: he had one arm in a rough sling...
- Throw together a rough prototype to bounce off users.
- He was standing frozen in the doorway, a rough sack of belongings slung over his shoulder.
- Drake grabbed a handful of his hair and twisted cruelly just as he finished tying off the rough bandage.
3.2Lacking sophistication or refinement: she took care of him in her rough, kindly way...
- Yet delicacy is not defeated, and this ambiguity in Jansons's paint handling - is it rough or is it refined?
- Ultimately this scheme has to do with the architects' pleasure in materials and light, and in juxtaposition of the rough and refined.
- They spoke together in their own rough language for a while before Rastif brought Sanchen over to them.
3.3Not fully worked out or including every detail: he had a rough draft of his new novel...
- Even though details are still rough, it's good to know that it placed so much thought into this masterpiece.
- I wrote various rough drafts, too many of them sarcastic.
- The book reads like a rough draft, not a polished book.
3.4(Of stationery) used for making preliminary notes: rough paper
4(Of a voice) harsh and rasping: his voice was rough with barely suppressed fury...
- When he spoke, his voice was rough and husky, barely above a whisper.
- Unable to even squint at the harsh light, her voice was rough and dry.
- Jeffrey's voice was rough and his words were harsh but Anthony remained calm and cool, save his eyes.
Synonyms
gruff, hoarse, harsh, rasping, raspy, husky, throaty, gravelly, guttural
raucous, discordant, cacophonous, grating, jarring, strident, harsh, dissonant, unmusical, inharmonious, unmelodious
4.1(Of wine or another alcoholic drink) sharp or harsh in taste: he refilled the mug with rough cider...
- After eight hours, we had gone solo and had splendid dog fights over the moors, huge fun, especially after two pints of rough cider!
- It is a lusty, even rough blend of Grenache, Syrah and Carignan.
- The rough red Italian vino was on the table for every meal and we drank it instead of water, not being too certain of the purity of the ship's drinking water.
Synonyms
sharp-tasting, sharp, sour, acidic, acid, vinegary
rare acidulous
5Not exact or precise; approximate: they had a rough idea of when the murder took place it’ll cost about £50, at a rough guess...
- We may perceive effects as real but they are in no way approaching even a rough approximation of reality and probably never will.
- Based on a rough approximation of the time, probably he'd be eating - bran cereal and fresh juice, the same every morning.
- In a rough approximation, it works the same way as lint, and lint's users will need very little time to understand how to use it.
Synonyms
approximate, inexact, estimated, imprecise, coarse-grained, vague, general, hazy
North American informal ballpark
6 informal Difficult and unpleasant: the teachers gave me a rough time because my image didn’t fit...
- All right, I understand that you've had a rough time, but there is no way you're finding out my past on these conditions.
- She looked like she'd had a rough time, and there was a three-foot-thick solid wall a mile high around her heart.
- If this was the explanation, then they could be in for a rough time.
Synonyms
difficult, hard, tough, bad, unpleasant, demanding, arduous
6.1British Hard; severe: the first day of a job is rough on everyone...
- He looked like hell; clearly this had been rough on him.
- The elderly couple had been closer to her than her father had ever been, and they were the only people she considered her family, but the winter had been rough on them.
- The Way of the Shield is a tough way, with pitfalls, blind corners, and - at times - it is rough on the one who treads the path.
Synonyms
harsh, hard, tough, stern, sharp, abrasive, severe, unfair, unjust, unrelenting, unfeeling, insensitive, nasty, cruel;
unkind, unsympathetic, inconsiderate, brutal, heartless, savage, merciless, extreme
6.2Unwell: the altitude had hit her and she was feeling rough
Synonyms
ill, unwell, poorly, bad, out of sorts, indisposed, not oneself, sick, queasy, nauseous, nauseated, peaky, liverish, green about the gills, run down, washed out, faint, dizzy, giddy, light-headed;
British off, off colour
informal under the weather, below par, not up to par, funny, peculiar, lousy, rotten, awful, terrible, dreadful, crummy
British informal grotty, ropy
Scottish informal wabbit, peely-wally
Australian/New Zealand informal crook
vulgar slang crappy
dated seedy
rare peaked, peakish
adverb informal
In a manner that lacks gentleness; harshly or violently: treat ‘em rough but treat ’em fair
noun
1chiefly British A disreputable and violent person: the rear of the column was attacked by roughs...
- Exhausted, the roughs finally shaken off, at 1 a.m. the sweat-soaked, frightened, and bedraggled dandy hammered at the door of his last-hope refuge.
- Two teams of roughs, clothed in only their union-suits, attempt to wrest the boar-skin from each other's possession.
Synonyms
ruffian, thug, lout, hooligan, hoodlum, rowdy, bully boy, brawler;
Australian larrikin
informal tough, roughneck, bruiser, gorilla, yahoo
British informal yob, yobbo, bovver boy, lager lout, chav
Scottish informal radge
Scottish & Northern English informal keelie, ned
Australian/New Zealand informal roughie, lout
2 [mass noun] (On a golf course) longer grass around the fairway and the green: his second shot lay in the rough...
- The 425-yard par four is a dog-leg right, with trees lining the left side and heavy rough and a fairway bunker on the right.
- Paul Crowe, the club's golf manager, describes it to me as ‘primal - a battle with the elements and natural roughs.’
3A preliminary sketch: I did a rough to work out the scale of the lettering...
- Behind the jar, a sketch pad is peopled with figurative roughs, historical drafts - the preliminaries of art and history, of cultural recognition.
- Then I went into the mixing studio for six weeks and worked from 7.00 am to 8: 30 am doing the drawings and colour roughs.
- Since most do not want to believe me, at a couple of random points during the semester, I will take one of the student's pinned-up roughs and wax poetic about various points and rationales.
Synonyms
preliminary sketch, draft, outline, mock-up, model, artist's impression
4An uncut precious stone: miners discovered one of the biggest diamond roughs in history...
- Over the course of six decades, Frank Sinatra managed to be both the diamond and the rough.
verb [with object]
1Work or shape (something) in a rough, preliminary fashion: flat surfaces of wood are roughed down...
- Few anchorages were available in this vast maze of coastline, with its network of inlets whose beds had been roughed in with decisive strokes of Nature's creative tools.
- The closet bend and toilet floor flange must be roughed in first.
- Using that comp, the artist roughs out a model in Maya.
1.1 (rough something out) Produce a preliminary and unfinished version of something: the engineer roughed out a diagram on his notepad...
- Woke this morning with the grim realization that I had not polished the column - in fact, I'd just roughed it out, sketched out the basic ideas.
- Working with the comp and some basic reference colors, the understructure of the ship is roughed out.
- In the beginning, we would sit together at a computer in New York or Chicago and rough things out, which was a lot of fun but extremely unproductive.
Synonyms
draft, sketch out, outline, block out, mock up;
suggest, delineate, give a brief idea of
formal adumbrate
2Make uneven: rough up the icing with a palette knife...
- The middle of the album is largely filled with the former, leaving the latter to rough up the record's edges.
- Grosvenor used a chain saw to rough up the top face of the work, which is at a tall viewer's eye level.
- Peter smiled and roughed his hair like he was just a kid.
Synonyms
roughen, make rough
3 (rough it) informal Live in discomfort with only basic necessities: she’d had to rough it alone in digs...
- Man cannot live by roughing it alone, which is why the first part of my journey is spent in the five-star opulence of the Tanjung Aru Resort in the state capital, Kota Kinabulu.
- Theoretically, if the tent has stayed up, then we could have roughed it in it.
- Little Nicky may be an exact copy of his DNA-donor, but Gordie was a stray for a couple of years and roughed it.
Phrases
bit of rough
in the rough
rough and ready
rough around the edges
rough as bags
the rough edge (or side) of someone's tongue
rough edges
rough justice
rough passage
a rough ride
rough stuff
sleep rough
take the rough with the smooth
Phrasal verbs
rough someone up
Derivatives
roughish
- In those pre-Watergate years, a certain air of roughish disrepute still clung to journalists as a species.
- I gave the people who were listening and watching a roughish wink.
- Warts are small, skin-coloured, roughish lumps on the skin.
Origin
Old English rūh, of West Germanic origin; related to Dutch ruw and German rauh.
Rhymes
- centrally
- central nervous system
- Central Park
- Central Powers
- central processing unit
- central processor
- central reservation
- central tendency
- Central time
- Central Valley
- centre
- centre back
- centre bit
- centreboard
- centre chief
- centred
- centredness
- centre field
- centre fielder
- centrefire
- centrefold
- centre forward
- centre half
- centre half-back
- centre half-forward