to rough-house
- verb
- /ˈrʌfˌhaʊs/
- Informal
- That was the finest rough-house I've seen this side of the water!
Examples
-
We were rough housing too hard.
-
No rough-house in this place, please.
-
Rough-housing with your kid brother.
-
The kids were rough-housing in the backyard, laughing as they playfully pushed each other.
-
It's great to see them rough-house during playtime, but I don't want them to hurt each other.
-
During the party, the children began rough-housing, which led to some harmless fun but also a few loud crashes.
Synonyms
To play roughly with others, like fighting or tumbling
Antonyms
How Rough
- NSFW
- NSFW
- Informal
- Informal
Surface Forms
Morphology
Etymology
Rough-house comes from the two simple words rough 'not gentle' and house 'home'. It first described noisy, rough play in a home, so to rough-house someone is to treat them in a rough, noisy way, often just as play.