Dictionary

rough-hew en · VERB

Etymology

From rough + hew.

Meanings

1. To cut or shape something roughly without finishing or tidying the surface.
   • It seems to me, then, that one must either be a ‘marinist’ […], or be a sub-äerialist, and believe that in Pre-Permian times the sea rough-hewed a block of country which the atmosphere has ever since been carving into its now complex and beautiful form. 1870, J. Clifton Ward, Geological Magazine, VII.67:
   • Our indiscretion sometimes serues vs well, / When our deare plots do paule, and that should teach vs, / There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends, / Rough-hew them how we will. c. 1599–1602 (date written), William Shakespeare, “The Tragedie of Hamlet, Prince of Denmarke”, in Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies […] (First Folio), London: […] Isaac Iaggard, and Ed[ward] Blount, published 1623, →OCLC, (please specify the act number in uppercase Roman numerals, and the scene number in lowercase Roman numerals):
   • Its erosion is a constant process of alternate rough hewing and planing. 1915, George Wharton James, The Lake of the Sky:

Forms

Translations (4)

fr dégrossir (cut or shape something roughly) · it sgrossare (cut or shape something roughly) · it sgrezzare (cut or shape something roughly) · it sbozzare (cut or shape something roughly)