roughly

rough +‎ -ly

• (UK, US) IPA^(key): /ˈɹʌf.li/

• Audio (US)

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• Rhymes: -ʌfli

roughly (comparative roughlier or more roughly, superlative roughliest or most roughly)

1. In a rough manner; without kindness, softness, or gentleness.

   Synonyms: harshly, rudely, severely, austerely

   • 1966, James Workman, The Mad Emperor, Melbourne, Sydney: Scripts, page 60:

     They treated the prisoners roughly [...] slashing pitilessly with their whips to drive them as wretched animals before them.

2. Unevenly or irregularly.
3. Without precision or exactness; imprecisely but close to in quantity or amount; approximately.

   Synonyms: see Thesaurus:approximately

   • 1936, Rollo Ahmed, The Black Art, London: Long, page 259:

     Satanism can be divided, roughly, into two branches: the Luciferians and the Palladists.

   • 2013 December 6, Alok Jha, “A deadly disease could travel at jet speed around the world. How do we stop it in time?”, in The Guardian Weekly, volume 189, number 26, page 27:

     Of the roughly 400 emerging infectious diseases that have been identified since 1940, more than 60% are zoonotic: ie they came from animals. Throughout history this has been common.

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