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Rough   /rəf/   Listen
adjective
Rough  adj.  (compar. rougher; superl. roughest)  
1.
Having inequalities, small ridges, or points, on the surface; not smooth or plain; as, a rough board; a rough stone; rough cloth. Specifically:
(a)
Not level; having a broken surface; uneven; said of a piece of land, or of a road. "Rough, uneven ways."
(b)
Not polished; uncut; said of a gem; as, a rough diamond.
(c)
Tossed in waves; boisterous; high; said of a sea or other piece of water. "More unequal than the roughest sea."
(d)
Marked by coarseness; shaggy; ragged; disordered; said of dress, appearance, or the like; as, a rough coat. "A visage rough." "Roughsatyrs."
2.
Hence, figuratively, lacking refinement, gentleness, or polish. Specifically:
(a)
Not courteous or kind; harsh; rude; uncivil; as, a rough temper. "A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough." "A surly boatman, rough as wayes or winds."
(b)
Marked by severity or violence; harsh; hard; as, rough measures or actions. "On the rough edge of battle." "A quicker and rougher remedy." "Kind words prevent a good deal of that perverseness which rough and imperious usage often produces."
(c)
Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating; said of sound, voice, and the like; as, a rough tone; rough numbers.
(d)
Austere; harsh to the taste; as, rough wine.
(e)
Tempestuous; boisterous; stormy; as, rough weather; a rough day. "He stayeth his rough wind." "Time and the hour runs through the roughest day."
(f)
Hastily or carelessly done; wanting finish; incomplete; as, a rough estimate; a rough draught.
Rough diamond, an uncut diamond; hence, colloquially, a person of intrinsic worth under a rude exterior.
Rough and ready.
(a)
Acting with offhand promptness and efficiency. "The rough and ready understanding."
(b)
Produced offhand. "Some rough and ready theory."



noun
Rough  n.  
1.
Boisterous weather. (Obs.)
2.
A rude fellow; a coarse bully; a rowdy.
In the rough, in an unwrought or rude condition; unpolished; as, a diamond or a sketch in the rough. "Contemplating the people in the rough."



verb
Rough  v. t.  
1.
To render rough; to roughen.
2.
To break in, as a horse, especially for military purposes.
3.
To cut or make in a hasty, rough manner; with out; as, to rough out a carving, a sketch.
Roughing rolls, rolls for reducing, in a rough manner, a bloom of iron to bars.
To rough it, to endure hard conditions of living; to live without ordinary comforts.



adverb
Rough  adv.  In a rough manner; rudely; roughly. "Sleeping rough on the trenches, and dying stubbornly in their boats."






Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48








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"Rough" Quotes from Famous Books



... I felt I must kill every German I saw. Of course, we've got over it now a bit, and we're all supplied with helmets, but when they used it first we had simply nothing to defend us. Yes, I have done some rough bits of work in my time, but I never met with anything like that. When you see your own pals getting bluer and bluer in the face, and coughing and gasping, oh, I tell you it made us mad! We didn't feel like showing any mercy after that. Besides, they have no sense ...
— Tommy • Joseph Hocking

... decided to move his family once more to North Elba before going West. It was June before his people reached this negro settlement in Northern New York. He placed his wife and children in an unplastered, four-roomed house. Through its rough weatherboarding the winds and snows of winter would howl. It had been hurriedly thrown together by his son-in-law, Henry Thompson. Brown had never stayed on one of his little farms long enough to bring ...
— The Man in Gray • Thomas Dixon

... that outdoor life. It is a far cry, perhaps, from the camp-fires of 1849 to the camp-fires of 1922, but surely the camp-fire spirit is the same with us in our Western wonderland today as it was with those rough old miners who sat around the logs under the pines after a day of arduous and oft disappointing toil. Surely the visions we see, the lessons we read in the camp-fire glow, are much the same as they were then. Surely we build the same ...
— Dickens in Camp • Bret Harte

... each rebuff That turns earth's smoothness rough, Each sting that bids nor sit nor stand but go! Be our joys three parts pain! Strive, and hold cheap the strain; Learn, nor account the pang; ...
— Among Famous Books • John Kelman

... marching sadly down Portugal Street, I felt a hand on my shoulder and a rough voice which I ...
— The Fatal Boots • William Makepeace Thackeray


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