roughshod

Adjective

roughshod (not comparable)

1. Of a horse: having hooves shod with horseshoes that have calks or projecting parts to prevent slipping.
   • The horses fell down three times, the roads being slippery, and we walked three miles to Linlithgow. There we waited two hours, to have the fresh horses roughshod.1814 November 10, Miss Berry [Mary Berry], edited by Lady [Maria] Theresa Lewis, Extracts of the Journals and Correspondence of Miss Berry from the year 1783 to 1852. … In Three Volumes, volume III...
   • Those who have followed a French army well know that their horses are always rough-shod. [...] Horses can bear cold when properly fed, and if they had not been rough-shod there were farriers attached to the army.1875, C. Joyneville [pseudonym; Catherine Laura Johnstone], “The French Retreat and the Russian Pursuit”, in Life and Times of Alexander I. Emperor of All the Russias. … In Three Volumes, volume II...
2. (broadly) Brutal or domineering.
   • She proved to be completely defenseless against her husband, both because of her own culture that demanded abject submission to the male, and because of her fearful reaction to his roughshod behavior toward her.1995, Leanne Payne, “Matthew's Story: Identity Crisis”, in The Broken Image: Restoring Personal Wholeness through Healing Prayer, Hamewith Books, Baker Publishing Group, →ISBN, page 36
   • In the roughshod horny world of boys, I had studied my companions closely to make sure that I wasn't being too "queer" for them.2005 June 13, Edmund White, “My Women”, in The New Yorker, volume 81, New York, N.Y.: F-R Publishing Corporation, →ISSN, →OCLC, page 120