rough

Not smooth; uneven.

Adjective

  1. Not smooth; uneven.
    • rough hands
    • rough stone
    • rough surface

    Synonyms: abrasive coarse rugose

    Antonyms: smooth

  2. Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.
    • a rough copy
    • a rough estimate
    • a rough guess

    Synonyms: almost back-of-the-envelope ballpark near

  3. Turbulent.
    • rough sea
    • rough water
    • rough weather

    Synonyms: agitated tempestuous tumultuous

  4. Difficult; trying.
    • Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.

    Synonyms: challenging hard tough arduous nasty difficult effortful rough rocky thistly uneath unsimple

  5. Crude; unrefined.
    • His manners are a bit rough, but he means well.

    Synonyms: rudimentary undeveloped barbaric uncouth crude garagelike primitive rough rude rudimental unrefined aweless improper bad-mannered bold bumptious churlish impudent discourteous gauche ill-bred ill-mannered impolite incivil

  6. Worn; shabby; weather-beaten.
    • "You find us a bit rough," apologized the young man, with something of contempt towards his surroundings. "We weren't expecting visitors." - 1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados:

    Synonyms: dilapidated ragged wrecksome clapped out damaged defective deteriorated effete faulty munted outworn passé past it past one's prime raddled ravaged rinky-dink rough shabby stale tired unimproved wasted weakened

  7. Having socio-economic problems, hence possibly dangerous.
    • the rough bit of town

    Synonyms: bad poor

  8. Violent; not careful or subtle.
    • rough words
    • This box has been through some rough handling.

    Synonyms: lax negligent slipshod careless cursory derelict heedless irregardless irrespective lash neglectful reckless regardless remiss slack slapdash sloppy slovenly unfaithful

  9. Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating.
    • a rough tone
    • a rough voice
    • But most by Numbers judge a Poet's song, / And smooth or rough, with them - 1711 May, [Alexander Pope], An Essay on Criticism, London: […] W[illiam] Lewis […]; and sold by W[illiam] Taylor […], T[homas] Osborn[e] […],...

    Synonyms: discordant raucous unlistenable absonant cacophonic cacophonical cacophonious cacophonous disharmonious dissonant honeyed horrisonant horrisonous immelodious inharmonious insonorous noneuphonious nonsonorous rough scabrous tuneless uneuphonious unmusical unharmonious

  10. Not polished; uncut.
    • a rough diamond

    Synonyms: unpolished

  11. Harsh-tasting.
    • rough wine

    Synonyms: distasteful unstomachable ill-flavored rough mawkish undrinkable uneatable unpalatable unsavory yucky

  12. Somewhat ill; sick; in poor condition.

    Synonyms: poorly sickly unwell ailing bad crank crook green about the gills icky ill indisposed infirm like death warmed over lousy maladive mawkish off one's feed on the Pat and Mick out of sorts Pat and Mick punk puny queer ropy

Origin

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"”).

Forms

rougher roughest ruff

Synonyms

abrasive asperous coarse gimped harsh irregular jagged jaggy rough rugged rugose salebrous scabrous scraggy shagged squarrose uneven unsmooth

Antonyms

even polished smooth velvety

Hypernyms

textured

Hyponyms

bumpy choppy corrugated cragged craggy creased gnarled gnarly knaggy knotted knotty knurly notched unbrushed ungroomed unshaven unpolished ridged scabby scaly shaggy wrinkled

Related

rough-hewn

Derived

cut up rough dog rough have a rough time of it have it rough in rough in the rough lie rough live rough macrorough microrough nanorough nonrough oak rough bulletgall wasp overrough rough and ready rough-and-ready rough and tumble rough around the edges rough-backed litter snake rough bedstraw rough bent rough bentgrass rough bluegrass rough-book

Adverb

  1. In a rough manner; rudely; roughly.
    • I will warrant they prove such roaring boys as I knew when I served under Lumford and Goring, [...] —sleeping rough on the trenches, and dying stubbornly in their boats. Ah! those merry days are gone. - 1826, [Walter...

Forms

more rough most rough ruff

Derived

sleep rough

Noun

  1. The unmowed part of a golf course.
  2. A rude fellow; a coarse bully; a rowdy.
    • In Wellington Street my brother met a couple of sturdy roughs, who had just rushed out of Fleet Street with still wet newspapers and staring placards. "Dreadful catastrophe!" they bawled one to the other down Wellington...
  3. 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.
  4. The raw material from which faceted or cabochon gems are created.
  5. A quick sketch, similar to a thumbnail but larger and more detailed, used for artistic brainstorming.
  6. Boisterous weather.
    • In calms you fish; in roughs use songs and dances. - 1633, Phineas Fletcher, Eclog 1. Amyntas:
  7. A piece inserted in a horseshoe to keep the animal from slipping.

Forms

roughs ruff

Derived

bit of rough diamond in the rough putt from the rough rough-and-tumble

Verb

  1. To create in an approximate form.
    • Rough in the shape first, then polish the details.
    • On the floor, one beside the other, stood two amphoræ of veined marble-like limestone; one a huge vase 2 feet high and more than 6 feet round, finished and perfect, with two splendid spiral bands; and the other a...
  2. To break the rules by being excessively violent.
    • […] roughing is not a part of the sport, and will not be tolerated. Referees will not permit unfair practices that may cause injury to a contestant, and are held strictly responsible for enforcing these rules. - 1938,...
  3. To commit the offense of roughing, i.e. to punch another player.
  4. To render rough; to roughen.
  5. To break in (a horse, etc.), especially for military purposes.
    • To Rough Horses, a word in familiar use among the dragoons to signify the act of breaking in horses, so as to adapt them to military purposes. - 1802, Charles James, A New and Enlarged Military Dictionary:
  6. To endure primitive conditions.
    • to rough it
    • “[…]Oh, but my husband is never so happy as when he is travelling. He likes roughing it. . . . My husband. . . . My husband. . . .” - 1920, Katherine Mansfield [pseudonym; Kathleen Mansfield Murry], “The Escape”, in...
    • I was able to help Trudy set up camp and everything else, of course there are different ways to camp the usual comfortable way or roughed we of course roughed it and I did my best to keep warm. - 2013, Anne-Marie K....
  7. To roughen a horse's shoes to keep the animal from slipping.

Forms

roughs roughing roughed ruff

Derived

rough in rough it rough out rough up