- rough
- rough adj 1 Rough, harsh, uneven, rugged, scabrous are comparable when they mean not having a smooth or even surface, exterior, or texture.Rough, the usual and comprehensive word, basically applies to whatever may be said to have a surface or an exterior which to the sense of touch or to the sight is not smooth but is covered with perceptible inequalities (as points, bristles, projections, or ridges){
rough ground
}{a rough block of stone
}{the rough skin of chapped hands
}{a rough tweed
}{a rough, unshaved face
}Often when applied to materials and substances employed in the arts and in manufacturing, rough means lacking a final finish (as of polishing, smoothing, or dressing){a rough diamond
}{rough steel
}{rough lumber
}By extension the term applies also to things which impress another than the tactile sense or one's nerves or feelings as lacking in smoothness and evenness{rough words
}{rough winds
}{rough sounds
}{he has had a rough time
}(see also RUDE).Harsh suggests a more definitely disagreeable sensation or impression than rough; when applied to what is felt with the hand, it implies a surface or texture that is distinctly unpleasant to the tactile sense{a harsh fabric
}{harsh sand
}or when applied to something heard, it suggests a rasping, grating quality{harsh voices
}{harsh din broke the fair music— Milton)
}and when applied to something seen, tasted, or smelled, it suggests a character or quality that is offensive or repellent to a sensitive person{a harsh liquor
}{harsh features
}{a harsh combination of colors
}Unlike rough, harsh in its extended senses seldom implies lack of polish or refinement, but rather it suggests a nature that is unfeeling, cruel, and indifferent to the pain it inflicts{a harsh critic
}{a harsh parent
}or when applied to things, effectiveness in promoting discomforts or in imposing rigors{a harsh rebuke
}{a harsh climate
}{a harsh sentence
}Uneven applies either to surfaces or to lines and suggests a lack of uniformity in height through all the points of the surface{an uneven road
}{an uneven floor
}or a lack of straightness and the presence of curves or angles{an uneven edge
}{an uneven hem
}In extended use it implies a lack of uniformity especially in excellence or agreeableness in all the parts (as of a life, a performance, or a work of art){the artist's brushwork in this painting is uneven
}{the trio's playing of the sonata was uneven
}Rugged, more often applied to persons so strong and healthy or machines so strongly made that they can survive great stress and strain, is not uncommonly employed in the sense of rough; in such use it applies chiefly to surfaces broken by ridges, prominences, gorges, and gullies that can offer serious difficulty to the traveler or worker{a rugged road up a mountain
}or which (as in the case of faces or countenances) are gaunt, seamed, or heavy- featured and suggest strength or maturity{any resemblance between you, with your rugged strong face and your coal-black hair, and this young Adonis— Wilde
}{his face had already lost its youthful chubbiness, and was becoming somewhat like William's—rough-featured, almost rugged—D. H. Lawrence
}Rugged is also applicable to writing which has not been made smooth, flowing, and agreeable to the ear, sometimes, but not necessarily, through lack of care or skill{the most rugged-seeming of prose dialogue, the kind . . . that people sometimes praise as "simply a page torn from the book of life"— Montague
}Scabrous applies basically to a surface that is rough to the touch though not necessarily uneven; in this sense it is a generic term including such species as scaly, scurfy, scabby, thorny, prickly, knobby, and knotty when applied to surfaces{a scabrous leaf
}{a scabrous hide
}In extended use scabrous applies chiefly to subject matter or to writings and works of art having subject matter that is prickly or thorny, or difficult to treat, often because it is offensive to the tastes or morals of the community{what writer ... has spoken more acutely on the somewhat scabrous, but none the less important subject of feminine "temperament"?— Huxley
}Antonyms: smooth2 *rude, crude, uncouth, raw, callow, greenAnalogous words: brusque, crusty, gruff, curt, blunt, *bluff: ungracious, uncivil, discourteous, impolite (see RUDE): *indecorous, unseemly, indecent, indelicateAntonyms: gentle
New Dictionary of Synonyms. 2014.
