rough-hewn

Related to rough-hewn: misattributed

rough-hewn

1. Having or being in a coarse, unpolished, or unfinished state. Though these labs employ rather rough-hewn methods and technologies, I can assure you that our results have been second to none. The performances are certainly rough-hewn, that's without a doubt, but I'd say that it actually lends credibility to the characters as being more organic and believable than if their lines had been honed to sterile perfection.
2. Somewhat lacking in refinement, sophistication, manners, etc. The workers on the oil rig are a bit rough-hewn, but they're damn decent chaps, every single one of them. I tend to head for the more rough-hewn pubs around town. I just find them more charming than their sleeker counterparts.
Farlex Dictionary of Idioms.
See also:
  • in rough
  • (as) rough as rawhide
  • rough edges
  • (a little/bit) rough around the edges
  • rough around the edges
  • (a little/bit) rough around the edge
  • employ (someone) for (something)
  • employ for
  • employ in
  • employ (someone) in (something)
References in periodicals archive
Examiner offered a similar endorsement on Wednesday, stating in its editorial: "While no candidate is perfect, presidents like Harry Truman remind us that defending and enriching America's place in a dangerous world often requires the sometimes rough-hewn character of men and women who always put country first, no matter the cost to them personally.
Only the Act III bridal scene, with the marriage bed set in the middle of a rough-hewn northern tundra, seems out of place.--NC
The house is wrapped in a patchwork skin of recycled timber pallets, inspired by the abstract geometries of American quilting traditions.The visually expressive pallets impart an imperfect, rough-hewn individuality and are a neat alternative to expensive cladding materials.
When Efrem, a rough-hewn, enigmatic loner comes into their lives, Pella is alternately repelled and attracted to him, as her hormones rage almost out of control.
For whatever reason, Mussorgsky's rough-hewn piano suite Pictures at an Exhibition has attracted the attention of dozens of orchestrators, none of them more successful than the tremendous arrangement by Maurice Ravel.
The Gwynedd rapper's first collection was a rough-hewn gem, filled with bursts of vitriol and criticism of everything and anything, including the Welsh media, the soap opera Pobol y Cwm, and the Welsh-language music scene itself.
Note too the state of the cart itself, little more than a wooden box with rough-hewn wheels.
He makes / of me a dream house, a cream puff, / my rough-hewn timber smoothed.
He perceives the prayerful and stark cry that leads to a state of meditation, to an almost mystical state he describes as "misticismo tosco, rough-hewn village mysticism" (31).
Mulligan made one from rough-hewn recycled redwood and put it against the retaining wall at the wall's highest point; it gives the appearance of space on the other side.
"His potent chili has won many accolades, just as his rough-hewn
"I have a difficult time describing what I do." Here's crack at it: Bates takes rugged raw materials like rough-hewn logs, horseshoes and antlers, and crafts masterful bed frames, chandeliers and art that runs the gamut from chrome buffalo skulls and statues made of horseshoes to $10,000 ornate antler chandeliers.
Housed in the rough-hewn, homemade stable setting was a life-size set of dark-skinned Nativity figures.
At first appearances the book may seem rough-hewn. But it's Tiger's personal experience documented by his hand-written notes.
A RANCH SETTING WITH LOW, rolling hills sets the stage for this rough-hewn beauty just north of San Diego.