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.]
    • 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):
      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

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