Word.ws English Dictionary

rough patch

rough patch noun: a difficult or embattling period of one's life.

Noun

rough patch (plural rough patches)

  1. (idiomatic) A difficult or embattling period of one's life.
    • It's in the nature of politics, and certainly the presidency, to go through rough patches – times when, because of a boneheaded mistake, an unforeseen circumstance, a sound but unpopular decision, or a failure to communicate – the headlines turn sour and the public finds you wanting.2020, Barack Obama, chapter 22, in A Promised Land, Crown
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rough, patch.

Forms of rough patch

pluralrough patches

Questions about rough patch

What does rough patch mean?
Rough patch means a difficult or embattling period of one's life.
What part of speech is rough patch?
Rough patch is a noun.
What is the plural of rough patch?
The plural of rough patch is rough patches.

Words near rough patch in the dictionary

  1. rough lemons
  2. rough music
  3. rough number
  4. rough numbers
  5. rough out
  6. rough patch
  7. rough patches
  8. rough perfect
  9. rough pump
  10. rough pumps
  11. rough ride

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rough patch (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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Cite this entry: “rough patch.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rough_patch. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.