different between slippery vs rough

English

Etymology

From Middle English slipperie, an extended form ( +? -y) of Middle English slipper, sliper (“slippery”), from Old English slipor (“slippery”), from Proto-Germanic *slipraz (“smooth, slippery”), equivalent to slip +? -er. Compare also Middle English slibbri, slubbri (“slippery”) borrowed from Middle Dutch or Middle Low German slibberich (“slippery”). Cognate with German schlüpfrig (“slippery”), Danish slibrig (“slippery”), Swedish slipprig (“slippery”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /?sl?p??i/, /?sl?p?i/

Adjective

slippery (comparative slipperier, superlative slipperiest)

1. Of a surface, having low friction, often due to being covered in a non-viscous liquid, and therefore hard to grip, hard to stand on without falling, etc.

   Oily substances render things slippery.

2. (figuratively, by extension) Evasive; difficult to pin down.

   a slippery person

   a slippery promise

3. (obsolete) Liable to slip; not standing firm.
   • 1602, William Shakespeare, Troilus and Cressida, III. iii. 84:

     Which when they fall, as being slippery standers, / The love that leaned on them, as slippery too, / Do one pluck down another, and together / Die in the fall.

4. Unstable; changeable; inconstant.
   • 1668, Sir John Denham

     He looking down
     With scorn or pity on the slippery state
     Of kings, will tread upon the neck of fate.

5. (obsolete) Wanton; unchaste; loose in morals.
   • 1610, William Shakespeare, The Winter's Tale, I. ii. 273:

     My wife is slippery? If thou wilt confess –

Synonyms

• (of a surface): greasy, slick, slimy, slippy, wet

Antonyms

• (of a surface): sticky

Derived terms

Related terms

• slip

Translations

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