▪ I. rough-hew, v.
(ˈrʌfhjuː)
[rough adv. Cf. Fris. rûchhouwen rough-hewing.]
a. trans. To hew (timber, etc.) roughly; to shape out roughly, give crude form to; to work or execute in the rough.
| 1530 Palsgr. 694/2, I rougheheawe a pece of tymber to make an ymage of, or to put to some byldyng, je charpis. 1598 Florio, Scappezzare, to rough hewe a peece of timber or stone. 1640 Bp. Hall Episc. iii. vii. 254 It appeares then, that Farell and Viret rough-hew'd this statue, which Calvin after polished. 1711 Addison Spect. No. 215 ¶8 To return to our Statue in the Block of Marble, we see it sometimes only begun to be chipped, sometimes rough-hewn. |
b. transf. or fig.
| 1565 Cooper Thes. s.v. Exascio, It is rough hewed, or squared out, or it is begunne. 1592 Nashe Four Lett. Confut. Wks. (Grosart) II. 197 He..speakes not that sentence in the Pulpit, which before he rough-hewes not ouer with his penne. 1602 Shakes. Ham. v. ii. 10 There's a Diuinity that shapes our ends, Rough-hew them how we will. 1651 Fuller's Abel Rediv. (1867) II. 284 And first he rough-hewed, and after polished and published, his exquisite tract. 1829 Scott Abbot xxxviii. Note T, The supernatural machinery with which his plan, when it was first rough-hewn, was connected. 1860 Smiles Self-Help xiii. 340 Daily life being the quarry from which we..rough-hew the habits which form it. |
| absol. a 1680 Butler Rem. (1759) I. 174 This proves that Wit does but rough-hew, Leaves Art to polish, and review. |
Hence ˈrough-hewer [cf. Fris. rûchhouwer]; ˈrough-hewing vbl. n.
| 1573 Baret Alv. s.v. Hew, A rough hewer, lapicida. 1587 Fleming Contn. Holinshed III. 1272/1 If things be not in perfection vpon this first rough hewing. 1855 Ogilvie Suppl., Rough-hewer, one who rough-hews. 1868 Westm. Rev. Jan. 188 Both were engaged in rough-hewing an empire... And though Miss Martineau regards some parts of the rough-hewing process as ‘a national calamity’ [etc.]. |
▪ II. ˈrough-hew, n. rare.
[f. the vb.]
Something lacking the finishing process; a preliminary version.
| 1889 G. M. Hopkins Lett. to R. Bridges (1935) 301 It was only a sketch, a rough-hew of a song. |