Word.ws English Dictionary

rough rides

rough rides is the plural of rough ride.

Meaning of rough ride

Noun

rough ride (plural rough rides)

  1. (slang) The practice of not applying a seat belt to a handcuffed detainee in a transport vehicle before driving erratically, causing that detainee to be violently shaken about.
    • Near-synonym: diesel therapy
    Synonyms:
    nickel ride, cowboy ride, screen test, diesel therapy
  2. Used other than figuratively or idiomatically: see rough, ride.
    • Will this decision-making paralysis continue until Great British Railways has been established and settled into a new rhythm? If so, passengers on the West of England line are in for a rough ride, as the reliability of these tired old British Rail trains inevitably declines, and maintenance costs...2026 February 18, Paul Clifton, “West of England Line problems laid bare”, in RAIL, page 7

Questions about rough rides

What is rough rides the plural of?
Rough rides is the plural of rough ride.

Words near rough rides in the dictionary

  1. rough pump
  2. rough pumps
  3. rough ride
  4. rough rider
  5. rough riders
  6. rough rides
  7. rough service light
  8. rough service lights
  9. rough shark
  10. rough sharks
  11. rough slant

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rough rides (page history and authors); rough ride (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 rides.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/rough_rides. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.