Word.ws English Dictionary

rough trade

rough trade noun: rough or tough men who are available as casual sexual partners for other men (for example in exchange for money).

Noun

rough trade (uncountable)

  1. (slang) Rough or tough men who are available as casual sexual partners for other men (for example in exchange for money).
    • Looked to me like one of these here sissies lookin' for rough trade, see, thought I'd roll him for some jack, what the hell, what can you do if you're sick an' can't work?1932, John Dos Passos, 1919
    • The tragic story of a young gay man who meets up with a piece of rough trade, gets convinced to become a drag hustler, and ultimately feels his life and relationships slipping away from him.1985 August 17, Michael Bronski, “Angel (review)”, in Gay Community News, volume 13, number 6, page 15
  2. (slang) Violent or sadomasochistic sex, especially casual gay sex.
    • Marcus Miller, The Mother Truckers (San Diego: Phenix Publishers, 1968)
      Truck drivers Joe, Jimmy, and Allyson cruise the nation's highways in a never-ending quest for rough trade. That's how they get their kicks and break free from the boredom of the road. When they cross paths with Gino and his...2000, Susan Stryker, Gay Pulp Address Book, →ISBN

Examples of rough trade in a sentence

  • Marc Blitzstein [...] forever championed the working class but avoided rubbing elbows with them unless they were rough trade (which wasn't quite elbows).1994, Ned Rorem, Knowing When to Stop: A Memoir:
  • But many of these men who were “to be had” were “rough trade” whose self-understanding was by no means either effeminate in gender role or exclusively homosexual in object choice.2011, Dagmar Herzog, Sexuality in Europe: A Twentieth-Century History, page 33:
  • The photographer suggested the subjects were “rough trade,” men with criminal pasts, busted for prostitution, drugs, or assault.2015, Ryan Berg, No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, and Other Transgressions:

Questions about rough trade

What does rough trade mean?
Rough trade means rough or tough men who are available as casual sexual partners for other men (for example in exchange for money).
How do you use rough trade in a sentence?
Marc Blitzstein [...] forever championed the working class but avoided rubbing elbows with them unless they were rough trade (which wasn't quite elbows).
What part of speech is rough trade?
Rough trade is a noun.

Words near rough trade in the dictionary

  1. rough sleepers
  2. rough sleeping
  3. rough string
  4. rough strings
  5. rough stuff
  6. rough trade
  7. rough trot
  8. rough trots
  9. rough up
  10. rough up the bullpen
  11. rough vacuum

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rough trade (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-rough trade.ogg.

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