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ride roughshod over

Syllables: ride rough·shod overUK/ˌɹaɪd ˈɹʌfʃɒd ˌəʊvə/US/ˌɹaɪd ˈɹʌfʃɑd ˌoʊvɚ/

ride roughshod over verb: to treat (someone) roughly or without care, control, moderation, or respect; to act in a bullying manner toward (someone); to damage (someone or something).

Verb

ride roughshod over (third-person singular simple present rides roughshod over, present participle riding roughshod over, simple past rode roughshod over, past participle ridden roughshod over)

  1. (idiomatic, transitive) To treat (someone) roughly or without care, control, moderation, or respect; to act in a bullying manner toward (someone); to damage (someone or something).
    • [B]eing in high ſpirits, after dinner, one of them being called upon for a toaſt, gave, „The d——l ride roughſhod over the raſcally part of the creation.”1795, The Festival of Wit, Being a Collection of Bon-mots, Anecdotes, etc. of the Most Exalted Characters, volume [I], Dresden: […] C. and F. Walther, →OCLC, page 48
    • [H]ad the Commons of England been of his way of thinking, Charles [I of England] and his prerogative would have ridden roughshod over their necks at will.1839, [H. M. Fletcher], chapter VII, in The Wizard of Windshaw. A Tale of the Seventeenth Century. […], volume III, London: J. W. Southgate, […], →OCLC, page 173

ride roughshod over meaning in Vietnamese

ride roughshod over in Vietnamese

to treat someone roughly
chà đạp, hà hiếp

Synonyms of ride roughshod over

Forms of ride roughshod over

third-person singular presentrides roughshod over
present participleriding roughshod over
pastrode roughshod over
past participleridden roughshod over

Origin of ride roughshod over

A horse is roughshod if its hooves are shod with horseshoes that have calks (projecting parts to prevent slipping). Thus, something that a roughshod horse is ridden over is likely to be damaged by the projections of its horseshoes.

Questions about ride roughshod over

What does ride roughshod over mean?
Ride roughshod over means to treat (someone) roughly or without care, control, moderation, or respect; to act in a bullying manner toward (someone); to damage (someone or something).
What is ride roughshod over in Vietnamese?
Ride roughshod over in Vietnamese is chà đạp, hà hiếp. See Ride roughshod over meaning in Vietnamese.
What part of speech is ride roughshod over?
Ride roughshod over is a verb.
How do you pronounce ride roughshod over?
Ride roughshod over is pronounced /ˌɹaɪd ˈɹʌfʃɒd ˌəʊvə/ (UK).
What is the past tense of ride roughshod over?
The past tense of ride roughshod over is rode roughshod over.

Words near ride roughshod over in the dictionary

  1. ride over
  2. ride pass
  3. ride passes
  4. ride pillion
  5. ride rantipole
  6. ride roughshod over
  7. ride rusty
  8. ride Saint George
  9. ride shotgun
  10. ride someone's ass
  11. ride St George

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: ride roughshod over (page history and authors). Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws reformatted the entry and added links. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Pronunciation audio from Wikimedia Commons, each file under its own free license: En-au-ride roughshod over.ogg.

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