ride roughshod over

A horse is roughshod if its hooves are shod with horseshoes that have calks (projecting parts to prevent slipping). Thus, something that a roughshod horse is ridden over is likely to be damaged by the projections of its horseshoes.[1]

• (Received Pronunciation) IPA^(key): /ˌɹaɪd ˈɹʌfʃɒd ˌəʊvə/
• (General American) IPA^(key): /ˌɹaɪd ˈɹʌfʃɑd ˌoʊvɚ/

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• Hyphenation: ride rough‧shod over

ride roughshod over (third-person singular simple present rides roughshod over, present participle riding roughshod over, simple past rode roughshod over, past participle ridden roughshod over)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To treat (someone) roughly or without care, control, moderation, or respect; to act in a bullying manner toward (someone); to damage (someone or something).

   Synonym: run roughshod over

   • 1795, The Festival of Wit, Being a Collection of Bon-mots, Anecdotes, etc. of the Most Exalted Characters, volume [I], Dresden: […] C. and F. Walther, →OCLC, page 48:

     [B]eing in high ſpirits, after dinner, one of them being called upon for a toaſt, gave, „The d——l ride roughſhod over the raſcally part of the creation.”

   • 1839, [H. M. Fletcher], chapter VII, in The Wizard of Windshaw. A Tale of the Seventeenth Century. […], volume III, London: J. W. Southgate, […], →OCLC, page 173:

     [H]ad the Commons of England been of his way of thinking, Charles [I of England] and his prerogative would have ridden roughshod over their necks at will.

   • 1845 September, “Woman Lost, Woman Restored, and Man Warned”, in The Mariners’ Church Gospel Temperance Soldiers’ and Sailors’ Magazine, volume XXV, number 9, London: Naval and Military Office, […], and by Basteil, […] for the Temperance British and Foreign Seaman, Soldiers, and Steamers’ Friend Society, and Bethel Flag Union, →OCLC, page 412:

     Thus, revelling amidst the wrecks of poor, feeble, helpless, ruined woman, man rides roughshod over his slaughtered victim, (Jehu like), saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst."

   • 1869, Louisa M[ay] Alcott, chapter 33, in Little Women: […], part second, Boston, Mass.: Roberts Brothers, →OCLC:

     He's so absent-minded and goodnatured, he lets those boys ride over him roughshod.

   • 1894 May, Rudyard Kipling, “Her Majesty's Servants”, in The Jungle Book, London, New York, N.Y.: Macmillan and Co., published June 1894, →OCLC:

     “ […] where I come from we aren't accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, pig-headed mule in a pop-gun pea-shooter battery. Are you ready?”

   • 1901, Henry B[lake] Fuller, “The Downfall of Abner Joyce”, in Under the Skylights, New York, N.Y.: D[aniel] Appleton and Company, →OCLC, chapter VI, page 28:

     He was brusque; he often rode roughshod over feminine sensibilities.

   • 1901 August – 1902 April, A[rthur] Conan Doyle, “The Man on the Tor”, in The Hound of the Baskervilles: Another Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, London: George Newnes, […], published 1902, →OCLC, page 246:

     We'll teach these magnates that they cannot ride rough-shod over the rights of the commoners, confound them!

   • 2001 June 25, Michael Fathers, “Demystifying a Demagogue”, in Time‎, New York, N.Y.: Time Warner Publishing, →ISSN, →OCLC, archived from the original on 1 October 2009:

     He [Sanjay Gandhi] was a selfish, untalented and unprincipled man who rode roughshod over his mother [Indira Gandhi].

   • 2003 August 3, Stephen Pritchard, “Racist or just anti-Sharon?”, in The Guardian‎:

     [Richard] Ingrams has always enjoyed a reputation for insensitivity. As with other columnists in the British press, he treads on toes to make his point and rides roughshod over issues that others handle with kid gloves, or avoid altogether.

   • 2011, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon, “Address to the Constituent National Assembly [31 July 1848]”, in Paul Sharkey, transl., edited by Iain McKay, Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology, Oakland, Calif., Edinburgh: AK Press, →ISBN, page 345:

     The intention was, in riding roughshod over me, to ride roughshod over socialism at a stroke, which is to say, ride roughshod over the protests coming from the proletariat and, in so doing, to take another stride down the path of reaction.

• Thesaurus:intimidate

• “to ride (also run) roughshod, phrase” under “roughshod, adj.”, in OED Online ⁠, Oxford, Oxfordshire: Oxford University Press, March 2011.
• “ride roughshod over, phrase”, in Lexico, Dictionary.com; Oxford University Press, 2019–2022.
• “ride roughshod over”, in OneLook Dictionary Search.