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What is "rough and ready"

The Collaborative International Dictionary
Rough and ready

Rough \Rough\, a. [Compar. Rougher; superl. Roughest.] [OE. rou?, rou, row, rugh, ruh, AS. r?h; akin to LG. rug, D. rug, D. ruig, ruw, OHG. r?h, G. rauh, rauch; cf. Lith. raukas wrinkle, rukti to wrinkle. [root] 18. Cf. Rug, n.]

  1. Having inequalities, small ridges, or points, on the surface; not smooth or plain; as, a rough board; a rough stone; rough cloth. Specifically:

    1. Not level; having a broken surface; uneven; -- said of a piece of land, or of a road. ``Rough, uneven ways.''
      --Shak.

    2. Not polished; uncut; -- said of a gem; as, a rough diamond.

    3. Tossed in waves; boisterous; high; -- said of a sea or other piece of water.

      More unequal than the roughest sea.
      --T. Burnet.

    4. Marked by coarseness; shaggy; ragged; disordered; -- said of dress, appearance, or the like; as, a rough coat. ``A visage rough.''
      --Dryden. ``Roughsatyrs.''
      --Milton.

  2. Hence, figuratively, lacking refinement, gentleness, or polish. Specifically:

    1. Not courteous or kind; harsh; rude; uncivil; as, a rough temper.

      A fiend, a fury, pitiless and rough.
      --Shak.

      A surly boatman, rough as wayes or winds.
      --Prior.

    2. Marked by severity or violence; harsh; hard; as, rough measures or actions.

      On the rough edge of battle.
      --Milton.

      A quicker and rougher remedy.
      --Clarendon.

      Kind words prevent a good deal of that perverseness which rough and imperious usage often produces.
      --Locke.

    3. Loud and hoarse; offensive to the ear; harsh; grating; -- said of sound, voice, and the like; as, a rough tone; rough numbers.
      --Pope.

    4. Austere; harsh to the taste; as, rough wine.

    5. Tempestuous; boisterous; stormy; as, rough weather; a rough day.

      He stayeth his rough wind.
      --Isa. xxvii. 8.

      Time and the hour runs through the roughest day.
      --Shak.

    6. Hastily or carelessly done; wanting finish; incomplete; as, a rough estimate; a rough draught. Rough diamond, an uncut diamond; hence, colloquially, a person of intrinsic worth under a rude exterior. Rough and ready.

      1. Acting with offhand promptness and efficiency. ``The rough and ready understanding.''
        --Lowell.

      2. Produced offhand. ``Some rough and ready theory.''
        --Tylor.

Wiktionary
rough and ready

a. (context idiomatic often hyphenated when placed immediately before the modified noun English) crude or unpolished, but still fit for use; good enough. alt. (context idiomatic often hyphenated when placed immediately before the modified noun English) crude or unpolished, but still fit for use; good enough.

Wikipedia
Rough and Ready (album)

Rough and Ready is the third album by The Jeff Beck Group and the first of two by the second Jeff Beck Group. Released in 1971, it featured more of a jazz, soul and R&B edge to counter Beck's lead guitar. As a songwriter, Beck contributed more pieces to Rough and Ready than he had before, or ever would again. Beck enlisted Bobby Tench as vocalist and it is also the first time keyboardist Max Middleton is heard. Other members of this line up are drummer Cozy Powell and bassist Clive Chaman.

Rough and Ready

Rough and Ready may refer to:

  • " Old Rough and Ready", a nickname for U.S. President Zachary Taylor
  • Rough and Ready (Alger novel), a 19th-century novel by Horatio Alger, Jr.
  • Rough and Ready (film), a 1918 silent film western

In places in the United States:

  • Rough and Ready, California, an unincorporated town in California, U.S.
  • Rough and Ready, Georgia, now Mountain View, Georgia
  • Rough and Ready, New York, a hamlet in the town of Greenwood, New York
  • Rough and Ready, Pennsylvania, an unincorporated town in Upper Mahantongo Township, Schuylkill County

In music:

  • Rough and Ready (album), an album by The Jeff Beck Group
  • Rough & Ready Volume 1, an album by Shabba Ranks
    • Rough & Ready Volume 2
  • "Rough & Ready", a song by Trace Adkins from Comin' On Strong
Rough and Ready (film)

Rough and Ready is a 1918 American silent western film produced and distributed by the Fox Film Corporation. It stars stage actor and western hero William Farnum. The picture was filmed in the Adirondack Mountains in western New York state. It is a lost film.

Usage examples of "rough and ready".

Hard to tell her age, and her face seemed tempered by hard living, but she was bonny enough in a rough and ready way.

I took a prowl through it, and thanked God I wasn't staying there, for while it was bustling enough and like to spread and prosper, it was still rough and ready, with streets awash with mud and slush, touts and roughs and sharps abounding, and the grog-shops and whore-houses open day and night.

A brisk, competent review of a hitherto obscure section of Ulphi's long-past rough and ready colonial period, pointing out and explaining the contrast between those days and the present quaintly perfect Ulphian civilization.

All very rough and ready, as neither Miss Price nor the children knew if the period covered by the bed-knob embraced the beginning of the world or just the history of England from 1066 onwards.

He saw that this was indeed a rough and ready culture up here, with many fewer taboos and ingrained social patterns than on Earth.

Sharp was something of a rough and ready surgeon and doctor, and a small box of medicines had been brought along in case of emergencies.

Richard, a belted earl, was King Geoffrey's brother-in-law and had a blood connection to King Zachary the Rough and Ready, now some years dead.