rough-hew

See also: roughhew

English

Etymology

rough +‎ hew

Verb

rough-hew (third-person singular simple present rough-hews, present participle rough-hewing, simple past rough-hewed, past participle rough-hewn)

1. To cut or shape something roughly without finishing or tidying the surface. [from 16th c.]
   • 1601, William Shakespeare, Hamlet:

     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.

   • 1870, J. Clifton Ward, Geological Magazine, VII.67:

     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.

   • 1915, George Wharton James, The Lake of the Sky:

     Its erosion is a constant process of alternate rough hewing and planing.

Translations

cut or shape something roughly

• French: dégrossir (fr)
• (deprecated template usage) {{trans-mid}}
• Italian: sbozzare (it), sgrossare (it), sgrezzare (it)