the rough
5
7.0
- noun
- Jargon
:
el rough
- Many amateur golfers find it difficult to recover their shots when they land in the rough.
- hit from the rough
- shot from the rough
- ball from the rough
Examples
-
What are you... putting from the rough?
-
We'll just call this part of Roy's mental preparation for the US Open, where the rough is deep and the greens are slick and nerves are shattered.
-
- Well, your ball is in the rough, but it's a good feeling, huh?
-
Bob hit a hard slide straight into the rough.
Fiction book (1996) -
So Simms, from the rough, that's a smart play.
-
Tightening his face, he drove his ball two hundred yards down the fairway, where it curved gently into the rough.
Fiction book (1997) -
After his drive landed in the rough, he struggled to get back onto the fairway.
-
Playing from the rough can be challenging due to the longer grass that obstructs the ball's path.
Synonyms
4
7.2
Long grass beside the fairway that makes play harder
Antonyms
34
5.5
A clear, mowed area between the tee and green on a golf course or a safe channel for ships
How Difficult
Surface Forms
Morphology
the + rough
The noun phrase is compositionally transparent: the definite article 'the' plus 'rough' (noun) directly denotes the area of long grass on a golf course. This is a straightforward noun phrase pattern found across languages, so a B1 learner who knows the constituent meanings will readily infer the MWE meaning.
Etymology
The rough comes from golf and names the area of long, messy grass where play is harder. If your ball lands in the rough, the heavy grass makes the shot much more 'difficult', so the word 'rough' gives a clear picture of a hard place to play.