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Chambers (1908)

Rough

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[A.S. rúh, rough; Ger. rauch, rauh, Dut. ruig.]

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Rough, ruf, adj. not smooth: uneven: uncut: unpolished: unfinished: boisterous: tempestuous: violent: harsh: severe: rude: coarse: disordered in appearance: hasty, as a rough guess: stale: astringent: in Greek grammar, marking the stronger aspiration, equivalent to Eng. h.—n. rough condition, crudeness: a piece inserted in a horse's shoe to keep him from slipping: a bully, a ruffian, a rowdy.—v.t. to make rough: to roughen a horse's shoes to keep him from slipping: to shape roughly: to roughen.—v.i. to break the rules in boxing by too great violence.—n. Rough′age, coarse material for bedding cattle, &c.—adj. Rough′-billed, having a rough, horny excrescence on the beak.—v.t. Rough′-cast, to mould in a rough, unfinished way: to form anything in its first rudiments.—n. a rude model: a form in its rudiments: a kind of semi-fluid mortar containing fine gravel, thrown in a thin coating on outer walls.—vs.t. Rough′-cull, to cull oysters hastily; Rough′-draft, -draw, to trace roughly; Rough′-dry, to dry without smoothing.—adj. dry without having been smoothed.—v.t. Rough′en, to make rough.—v.i. to become rough.—n. Rough′er, a workman who shapes something preparatory to a finishing operation: a piece of woollen cloth in preparation for fulling.—adjs. Rough′-foot′ed, having feathered feet, as a grouse; Rough′-grained, coarse-grained.—v.t. Rough′-grind, to grind roughly.—n. Rough′-head, the iguanoid lizard.—v.t. Rough′-hew, to hew coarsely: (Shak.) to give to anything the first appearance of form.—n. Rough′-hew′er.—p.adj. Rough′-hewn, not yet nicely finished: unpolished: unrefined.—ns. Rough′-hound, the dogfish: a kind of shark; Rough′ie (Scot.), dried heath; Rough′ing-mill, a metal disc charged with wet emery, &c., for grinding gems.—adjs. Rough′ish, rather rough; Rough′-legged, having legs covered with feathers.—adv. Rough′ly, coarsely: harshly: rudely.—ns. Rough′ness, crudeness: rawness: harshness: asperity: physical or mental rudeness: (U.S.) fodder consisting of dried corn-stalks: (Scot.) plenty, esp. of food.—adj. Rough′-per′fect, of an actor when nearly perfect in the memorising of a part.—ns. Rough′-rid′er, one who rides rough or untrained horses: a horse-breaker; Rough′-scuff, a coarse fellow: the rabble.—adj. Rough′-shod, shod with roughened shoes, as a horse in frosty weather.—n. Rough′-slant, a shed partially enclosed, for shelter.—adj. Rough′-spun, rude, homely.—ns. Rough′-string, one of the supports for the steps of a wooden stairway; Rough′-stuff, coarse paint laid on after the priming, and before the finish; Rough′-tail, a shield-tail snake.—adj. Rough′-tailed.—n. Rough′-wing, a British moth: a rough-winged swallow.—adj. Rough′-winged.—v.t. Rough′-work, to work over hastily without attention to execution in detail—also n.—Rough and ready, rough in manner but prompt in action; Rough and tumble, said of fighting in any style or by any means: indiscriminate, confused, not too particular about decorum, fairness, &c.; Rough diamond (see Diamond); Rough it, to take what comes.—Cut up rough, to become quarrelsome or violent; In the rough, in an unwrought or rude condition; Ride rough-shod (see Ride). [A.S. rúh, rough; Ger. rauch, rauh, Dut. ruig.]

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  • Historical scholarship from 1908; not current consensus or editorial verification.
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  • Public-domain determination applies to the United States; other jurisdictions require separate confirmation.
  • Chambers consulted earlier dictionaries including Skeat and the New English Dictionary; overlapping claims are not independent scholarly votes.

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Edition, rights and traceability

Chambers’s Twentieth Century Dictionary of the English Language
Thomas Davidson (editor)
1908

Public-domain-US ↗ · United States

Publisher marks these historical texts public domain in the USA. Transformed book text excludes Gutenberg branding; source attribution is a bibliographic acknowledgment. No non-US public-domain determination is made.

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