Word.ws English Dictionary

How to use rough in a sentence

40 example sentences · adjective, noun, verb

Rough means not smooth; uneven. Example: “Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.”

Examples of rough by meaning

adjectiveNot smooth; uneven.

  • Rough with crinkled limpet shells and sparsely strewn with locks of dry seaweed, a small boy has to stretch his legs far apart, and indeed to feel rather heroic, before he gets to the top.1922 October 26, Virginia Woolf, chapter 1, in Jacob’s Room, Richmond, London: […] Leonard & Virginia Woolf at the Hogarth Press, →OCLC...

adjectiveApproximate; hasty or careless; not finished.

  • a rough copy
  • a rough estimate
  • a rough guess

adjectiveTurbulent.

  • But on arrival there, friends told my brother that the Indian Ocean was rough in June and July, and as this was my first voyage, I should not be allowed to sail until November.1927, M[ohandas] K[aramchand] Gandhi, chapter XII, in Mahadev Desai, transl., The Story of My Experiments with Truth: Translated from the...

adjectiveDifficult; trying.

  • Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.

adjectiveCrude; unrefined.

  • His manners are a bit rough, but he means well.

adjectiveWorn; shabby; weather-beaten.

  • "You find us a bit rough," apologized the young man, with something of contempt towards his surroundings.1914, Ernest Bramah, Max Carrados

adjectiveHaving socio-economic problems, hence possibly dangerous.

  • the rough bit of town

adjectiveViolent; not careful or subtle.

  • This box has been through some rough handling.

More sentences with rough

  • If your truck's been riding rough, it might need new shocks.From the entry shock
  • The prototype had loose wires and rough edges, but it worked.From the entry prototype
  • This type of plane can handle rough weather more easily than that type of plane.From the entry type
  • We used the number of cites as a rough measure of the significance of each published paper.From the entry cite
  • The ball scooted off the fairway and sat down in the thick rough.From the entry sit down
  • We'll rough them all in before we start terminating any of them.From the entry terminate
  • On some beaches, the berm grows higher in summer and flattens out in the rougher winter seas.From the entry berm
  • You're going to wear out that game if you keep playing so rough with it.From the entry wear out
  • The flight was smooth, but the takeoff was a little rough.From the entry takeoff
  • His rough, burly father was mortified by the lad's pantywaist behavior.From the entry pantywaist
  • While rough around the edges, the church is really a wonderful place to be.From the entry rough around the edges
  • His writing is appealing, but a bit rough around the edges.From the entry rough around the edges
  • Don't let her rough exterior fool you; underneath that grumpy disposition beats a heart of gold.From the entry heart of gold
  • Her auto mechanic is a diamond in the rough: tough-talking but honest, even generous.From the entry diamond in the rough
  • The first step in creating the statue was roughing it out from a large block of stone.From the entry rough out
  • The rough waters of change will bring about the calm after the storm.From the entry water
  • "I attacked the dog into the fire" employs a rough form of praegnans constructio.From the entry praegnans constructio
  • His rough edges have been smoothed away by a period of personal growth.From the entry smooth away
  • Despite the rough voice, the coach is surprisingly feeling.From the entry feeling
  • The cloth was made from strange, somewhat rough fibre.From the entry fibre
  • The cloth is made from strange, somewhat rough fiber.From the entry fiber
  • There could be a rough crowd out in the bleachers.From the entry bleacher
  • The denizens of that pub are of the roughest sort.From the entry denizen
  • The truck rumbled over the rough road.From the entry rumble
  • The gangsters roughed him up a little.From the entry rough up
  • My uncle got roughed up by some corporate thugs after they caught him trying to unionize their workers.From the entry unionize
  • We're running out of money. It's going to be rough sledding from now on, but we'll have to cope.From the entry rough sledding
  • Out in the backwoods with only a tent and no radio or plumbing, they were really roughing it.From the entry rough it
  • The street ended out in a rough neighborhood.From the entry end out
  • People who like obscure soft drink brands have it rough when going to restaurants, because nobody serves them.From the entry have it rough

Meaning of rough

  1. adjective Not smooth; uneven.
  2. adjective Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.
  3. adjective Turbulent.

Full definition of rough

Questions about rough in a sentence

How do you use rough in a sentence?
Rough is used as an adjective, noun and verb. For example: “Being a teenager nowadays can be rough.”
What is a short sentence with rough?
“a rough copy”
What does rough mean?
Rough means not smooth; uneven.

Source and license

Adapted from Wiktionary: rough (page history and authors) and the entries each sentence comes from. Text available under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 license. Word.ws chose the sentences, left out offensive ones and quotations older than 1900, and marked the word in each. Wiktionary data of 2026-09-02.

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Cite this page: “How to use rough in a sentence.” Word.ws, https://word.ws/sentences/rough. Based on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.