rough
/ɹʌf/ adjective, noun, verb, adverb, proper noun
Forms rougher roughest roughs roughing roughed ruff
- adjective Not smooth; uneven. “rough hands”
- adjective Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished. “a rough copy”
- adjective Turbulent. “rough sea”
- adjective Difficult; trying. “Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.”
- adjective Crude; unrefined. “His manners are a bit rough, but he means well.”
- adjective Worn; shabby; weather-beaten.
- adjective (of a place) Having socio-economic problems, hence possibly dangerous. “the rough bit of town”
- adjective Violent; not careful or subtle. “rough words”
- noun The unmowed part of a golf course.
- noun A rude fellow; a coarse bully; a rowdy.
- noun (cricket) A scuffed and roughened area of the pitch, where the bowler's feet fall, used as a target by spin bowlers because of its unpredictable bounce.
- noun The raw material from which faceted or cabochon gems are created.
- noun A quick sketch, similar to a thumbnail but larger and more detailed, used for artistic brainstorming.
- noun (obsolete) Boisterous weather.
- noun A piece inserted in a horseshoe to keep the animal from slipping.
- verb To create in an approximate form. “Rough in the shape first, then polish the details.”
- verb (boxing, wrestling, intransitive) To break the rules by being excessively violent.
- verb (ice hockey) To commit the offense of roughing, i.e. to punch another player.
- verb To render rough; to roughen.
- verb To break in (a horse, etc.), especially for military purposes.
Synonyms
abrasive coarse rugose almost back-of-the-envelope ballpark near agitated tempestuous tumultuous challenging hard tough arduous nasty difficult sticky effortful rocky thistly rough in rough out unsmooth approximate approximative boisterous fierce grating gravelly rasping
Antonyms
Etymology
From Middle English rough, roughe, roȝe, row, rou, ru, ruȝ, ruh, from Old English rūg, rūh, from Proto-Germanic *rūhaz.
Cognate with Scots ruch, rouch (“rough”), Saterland Frisian ruuch, rouch (“rough”), West Frisian rûch (“rough”), Low German ruuch (“rough”), Dutch ruig (“rough”), German rau(h) (“rough”), Danish ru (“uneven on the surface, "rough", "rugged"”).
English and Scottish surname, variant of Ruff, itself of several origins:
* From the adjective rough
* Variant of Roof, Roff, Rolfe
* Scots pronunciation of Rock
* German variant of Ruf, itself shortened from Rudolf.
Webster’s 1913
- adjective Having inequalities, small ridges, or points, on the surface; not smooth or plain; as, a rough board; a rough stone; rough cloth.
- adjective Hence, figuratively, lacking refinement, gentleness, or polish.
- noun Boisterous weather. [Obs.] Fletcher.
- noun 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.
Etymology [OE. rou, rou, row, rugh, ruh, AS. r; akin to LG. rug, D. rug, D. ruig, ruw, OHG. r, G. rauh, rauch; cf. Lith. raukas wrinkle, rukti to wrinkle. sq. root 18. Cf. Rug, n.]
Sources: Wiktionary · WordNet 3.0 · Webster’s 1913 — from the Wiktionary entry “rough”, CC BY-SA 4.0. Details