roughs

1. 1
   noun

   Plural of rough.

   She pinned a dozen roughs to the wall and compared their compositions.

   The illustrator sent three roughs for the cover, and the editor chose the middle one.

   Note

   One spelling, several trades. On a golf course, roughs are stretches of unmowed grass. On a cricket pitch, they are the scuffed patches where bowlers' feet land, prized by spin bowlers for their uneven bounce. To an artist, they are quick working sketches, and to a gem cutter, uncut stones. A crowd of roughs is a gang of rowdies. Context alone tells these apart, and the same spelling is also the present-tense verb.

2. 2
   verb

   Third-person singular simple present of rough.

   He roughs in the outlines of the portrait before adding any detail.

   The machinist roughs the metal surface so the coating bonds to it.

   Note

   The -s form goes with he, she, it or a singular noun: the machinist roughs, but they rough, and after a modal it is can rough. It carries transitive uses: she roughs a surface, roughs in an outline, or roughs a horse for military service. It also carries the intransitive sporting sense of playing too violently, as in a player who roughs. Unlike the noun plural, it names an action, never a thing.

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