rough-hew
Americanverb (used with object)
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to hew (timber, stone, etc.) roughly or without smoothing or finishing.
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to shape roughly; give crude form to.
verb
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to cut or hew (timber, stone, etc) roughly without finishing the surface
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Also: roughcast. to shape roughly or crudely
Etymology
Origin of rough-hew
First recorded in 1520–30
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
It also engages the idea that some things may be hard-wired into our blood, echoing Hamlet’s phrase about how there’s a “divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will.”
From New York Times • Apr. 17, 2016
If his plans or attempts should one after the other fail, "there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will"!
From Donal Grant, by George MacDonald by MacDonald, George
"Then you don't believe there is a Destiny that shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we will?"
From The Hidden Places by Sinclair, Bertrand W.
John said to him at this point, and Mr. Jannissary murmured that there was a divinity which shapes our ends, rough-hew them how we may.
From The Foolish Lovers by Ervine, St. John G. (St. John Greer)
"There is a Providence that shapes our ends, rough-hew them as we will!"
From Two Months in the Camp of Big Bear by Gowanlock, Theresa
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
