rough
Language: English
Part of speech: adj
Pronunciation: ipa: /ɹʌf/
ipa: /ɹɐf/
ipa: /ɹʊf/
rhymes: -ʌf
homophone: ruff
Forms: form: rougher
form: roughest
form: ruff
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"”).
Senses: examples: text: rough hands
text: rough stone
text: rough surface
text: The rock was one of those tremendously solid brown, or rather black, rocks which emerge from the sand like something primitive. Rough with crinkled limpet shells and sparsely strewn with locks of dry seaweed, a small boy has to stretch his legs far apart, and indeed to feel rather heroic, before he gets to the top.
ref: 1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC; republished London: The Hogarth Press, 1960, →OCLC:
glosses: Not smooth; uneven.
examples: text: a rough copy
text: a rough estimate
text: a rough guess
text: a rough plan
text: a rough sketch of a building
glosses: Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.
examples: text: rough sea
text: rough water
text: rough weather
text: With my mother's permission and blessings, I set off exultantly for Bombay, leaving my wife with a baby of a few months. But on arrival there, friends told my brother that the Indian Ocean was rough in June and July, and as this was my first voyage, I should not be allowed to sail until November.
ref: 1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XII, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the Original in Gujarati, volume I, Ahmedabad, Gujarat: Navajivan Press, →OCLC:
glosses: Turbulent.
examples: text: Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.
glosses: Difficult; trying.
examples: text: His manners are a bit rough, but he means well.
glosses: Crude; unrefined.
glosses: Worn; shabby; weather-beaten.
examples: text: the rough bit of town
glosses: Having socio-economic problems, hence possibly dangerous.
raw_tags: of a place
examples: text: rough words
text: This box has been through some rough handling.
glosses: Violent; not careful or subtle.
examples: text: a rough tone
text: a rough voice
text: But most by Numbers judge a Poet's song, / And smooth or rough, with them
ref: 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […], and J[ohn] Graves […], →OCLC:
glosses: Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating.
examples: text: a rough diamond
glosses: Not polished; uncut.
raw_tags: of a gem
examples: text: rough wine
glosses: Harsh-tasting.
glosses: Somewhat ill; sick; in poor condition.
glosses: Unwell due to alcohol; hungover.
glosses: Of or relating to the rough breathing in the Greek language.
Synonyms: word: abrasive
word: asperous
word: coarse
word: gimped
word: harsh
word: irregular
word: jagged
word: jaggy
word: rough
word: rugged
word: rugose
word: salebrous
word: scabrous
word: scraggy
word: shagged
word: squarrose
word: uneven
word: unsmooth
Hypernyms: word: textured
Hyponyms: word: bumpy
word: choppy
word: corrugated
word: cragged
word: craggy
word: creased
word: gnarled
word: gnarly
word: knaggy
word: knotted
word: knotty
word: knurly
word: notched
word: unbrushed
word: ungroomed
word: unshaven
word: unpolished
word: ridged
word: scabby
word: scaly
word: shaggy
word: wrinkled
Derived terms: cut up rough
dog rough
have a rough time of it
have it rough
in rough
in the rough
live rough
nanorough
oak rough bulletgall wasp
rough-and-ready
rough and ready
rough and tumble
rough around the edges
rough-backed litter snake
rough bedstraw
rough bent
rough bentgrass
rough book
rough-book
rough breathing
roughcast
rough collie
Rough Common
rough cut
rough diamond
rough draw
rough-draw
rough-dressed
rough-edged
rough edges
rough end of the pineapple
rough endoplasmic reticulum
rough fish
rough-footed
rough-footed mud turtle
rough-grained
rough hawksbeard
rough-hew
rough-hewer
rough-hewn
rough horsetail
rough-hound
rough house
rough-house
roughhouse
rough justice
rough-leaf false vervain
rough-legged
rough-legged buzzard
rough-legged hawk
rough lemon
roughly
rough music
roughness
rough number
rough patch
rough perfect
rough pump
rough ride
roughrider
rough rider
Rough Riders
rough service light
rough shark
roughshod
rough slant
rough sledding
rough sleeper
roughspun
rough string
rough stuff
rough talk
rough-toothed dolphin
rough trade
rough trot
rough up the bullpen
rough vacuum
take the rough with the smooth
the rough side of one's tongue
unrough
Related terms: word: rough-hewn