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Glite Dictionary
to ride roughshod over

to ride roughshod over

1 8.5
Treat other people's feelings, rights, or opinions as not important and ignore them rudely
  • phrasal verb
translation icon : pisotear
  • The CEO rode roughshod over the employees' protests, pushing through changes that no one wanted.

Examples

  • She always rides roughshod over her friends' opinions, insisting her ideas are the best.

  • I like the idea of government holding businesses and corporations accountable and preventing them from harming our environment and riding roughshod over citizens.

    Blog text (12)

  • In his day, it was the wealthy minority that rode roughshod over the majority.

    Academic text (2002)

  • Having drawn all those distinctions, I'm going to just ride roughshod over them and and put them aside.

  • The traditional solution to this problem would be more economic growth—growth that would tend to ride roughshod over the environment.

    Academic text (1999)

  • Believe me, if my servant's life and my own honor weren't at stake, I would gladly take your word sooner than ride roughshod over your feelings.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Lady Tarleton's the worst—she thinks she can ride roughshod over everything and everybody, just because she's a Fontclair.

    Fiction book (1993)

  • Its conservative critics see in PC the threat of a left-wing dictatorship, an army of liberal enforcers controlling the way we speak and think, riding roughshod over the First Amendment.

    Academic text (1993)

  • The manager rode roughshod over the team's concerns, making decisions without considering their input.

Synonyms

to abuse
vsto ride roughshod over
  • NSFW
344 3.7

To treat a person or animal cruelly to harm them

focuses on ignoring feelings and rights rather than physical cruelty
to run roughshod
vsto ride roughshod over
6 8.4

To act without care for other people or their rights

is more aggressive and shows complete disregard rather than mere carelessness
to walk all over someone
vsto ride roughshod over
  • Informal
3 7.2

Treat someone badly by using them and ignoring their feelings

is about bluntly dismissing feelings and rights rather than only exploiting
to ride roughshod
vsto ride roughshod over
1 8.8

Treat people badly and ignore their feelings or rights

is the full phrase including the final particle and same force
to walk over (someone)
vsto ride roughshod over
  • Informal
6.1

To treat someone badly by ignoring their needs and using them

is stronger stressing total disregard for feelings and rights

Antonyms

to consider
∞ 1.1

To think carefully before making a decision

to value
285 1.9

To think a person or thing is important

How Harsh

to trample
82 4.4
to ride roughshod over
1 8.5
to disregard
119 3.9
to dismiss
332 3.0

Surface Forms

ride roughshod over infinitive
riding roughshod over present participle
rides roughshod over third person singular
rode roughshod over past
ridden roughshod over past participle

Morphology

ride + roughshod + over

The components roughly map onto the MWE meaning: 'ride' (to dominate or treat harshly), 'roughshod' (ruthlessly), and 'over' (directed at someone), so a learner who knows these words can piece together the sense of treating someone without regard. However, 'roughshod' is low-frequency and the fixed idiomatic ordering and historical metaphor make the phrase somewhat non‑productive; the meaning is only partially predictable rather than fully compositional.

Etymology

Ride roughshod over may come from the image of a rider whose horse was roughshod and wore rough metal shoes that trampled people or plants as it rode over them. So, to ride roughshod over someone means to 'ignore their feelings or rights'.