different between rough vs ungentle

English

Alternative forms

• ruff (colloquial)

Etymology

From Middle English rough, rogh, ro?e, row, rou, ru, ru?, ruh, from Old English r?g, r?h, from Proto-Germanic *r?haz. Cognate with Scots ruch, rouch (“rough”), Saterland Frisian ruuch, rouch (“rough”), West Frisian rûch (“rough”), Low German ruuch (“rough”), Dutch ruig (“rough”), German rau(h) (“rough”).

Pronunciation

• (Received Pronunciation, General American) IPA^(key): /??f/
• Rhymes: -?f
• Homophone: ruff

Adjective

rough (comparative rougher, superlative roughest)

1. Not smooth; uneven.
   • 1922, Virginia Woolf, Jacob's Room Chapter 1

     The rock was one of those tremendously solid brown, or rather black, rocks which emerge from the sand like something primitive. 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.

2. Approximate; hasty or careless; not finished.

3. Turbulent.
   • 1927-29, M.K. Gandhi, The Story of My Experiments with Truth, translated 1940 by Mahadev Desai, Part I, Chapter xii:

     With my mother's permission and blessings, I set off exultantly for Bombay, leaving my wife with a baby of a few months. 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.

4. Difficult; trying.

5. Crude; unrefined

6. Violent; not careful or subtle

7. Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating.

   • But most by Numbers judge a Poet's song,
     And smooth or rough, with them

8. Not polished; uncut; said of a gem.

9. Harsh-tasting.

10. (chiefly Britain, colloquial, slang) Somewhat ill; sick
11. (chiefly Britain, colloquial, slang) Unwell due to alcohol; hungover

Antonyms

• smooth

Derived terms

Translations

Noun

rough (plural roughs)

1. The unmowed part of a golf course.
2. A rude fellow; a coarse bully; a rowdy.
3. (cricket) A scuffed and roughened area of the pitch, where the bowler's feet fall, used as a target by spin bowlers because of its unpredictable bounce.
4. The raw material from which faceted or cabochon gems are created.
5. A quick sketch, similar to a thumbnail but larger and more detailed, used for artistic brainstorming.
6. (obsolete) Boisterous weather.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Fletcher to this entry?)

7. A piece inserted in a horseshoe to keep the animal from slipping.

Derived terms

Translations

Verb

rough (third-person singular simple present roughs, present participle roughing, simple past and past participle roughed)

1. To create in an approximate form.

2. (ice hockey) To commit the offense of roughing, i.e. to punch another player.
3. To render rough; to roughen.
4. To break in (a horse, etc.), especially for military purposes.

   (Can we find and add a quotation of Crabb to this entry?)

5. To endure primitive conditions.
6. (transitive) To roughen a horse's shoes to keep the animal from slipping.

Derived terms

Translations

Adverb

rough (comparative more rough, superlative most rough)

1. In a rough manner; rudely; roughly.

Derived terms

• sleep rough

English

Etymology

From un- +? gentle.

Adjective

ungentle (comparative more ungentle, superlative most ungentle)

1. Showing a lack of gentleness, kindness or compassion.

   Synonyms: cruel, harsh, rough, unkind

   • 1551, Ralph Robinson (translator), Utopia by Thomas More, London: Abraham Vele, Book 1,^[1]

     […] Moyses lawe, thoughe it were vngentle and sharpe […] yet it punnyshed thefte by the purse, and not wyth deathe.

   • c. 1597, William Shakespeare, Henry IV, Part 1, Act V, Scene 1,^[2]

     You have […] made us doff our easy robes of peace,

     To crush our old limbs in ungentle steel:

   • 1770, Francis Gentleman, The Dramatic Censor, London: J. Bell, Volume 2, p. 110,^[3]

     […] a well-conceived squabble arises, and very ungentle terms ensue:

   • 1848, Anne Brontë, The Tenant of Wildfell Hall, London: T. C. Newby, Volume 2, Chapter , p. 253,^[4]

     At length, however, the boisterous pastime terminated—suddenly, as might be expected: the little one was hurt and began to cry; and its ungentle playfellow tossed it into its mother’s lap, bidding her “make all straight.”

   • 1993, Vikram Seth, A Suitable Boy, New York: HarperCollins, Chapter 12.16, p. 805,^[5]

     ‘Dagh Sahib, a woman by herself—what place can she find in an ungentle world?’

2. (obsolete) Not acting according to accepted ethics or standards of behaviour.

   Synonyms: base, villainous, wicked

   • 1548, Edward Hall, The Union of the Two Noble and Illustre Famelies of Lancastre and Yorke, London: Richard Grafton, King Henry VI, year 15, p. 135,^[6]

     […] this vngentle prince, and forgetfull frend, puttyng in obliuion, bothe the dutie of his obeysaunce, toward his souereigne and liege lorde, and the oth and promise, that he made to kyng Henry, […] turned his backe to his frend and kynsman, and loked to the French part, whiche neuer did hym honor nor profite,

   • 1579, Anthony Munday, The Mirrour of Mutabilitie, London: John Allde, Book 2,^[7]

     What more deceit? then look thy Fréend in face:

     And woork his death, in most vngentle case.

   • c. 1590, William Shakespeare, Henry VI, Part 2, Act III, Scene 2,^[8]

     Ungentle queen, to call him gentle Suffolk!

     No more, I say: if thou dost plead for him,

     Thou wilt but add increase unto my wrath.

   • 1629, John Ford, The Lover’s Melancholy, London: H. Seile, Act III, Scene 1, p. 42,^[9]

     I will reward thee:

     But as for him, vngentle Boy, Ile whip

     His falshood with a vengeance.

Derived terms

• ungentleness
• ungently

Translations