to rough up
35
7.3
- phrasal verb
- /rʌf ʌp/
- Offensive
:
dar una paliza a
- He roughed me up a little bit.
- get roughed up
- roughed up by police
- rough up people
I couldn't he was two years older, stronger, could rough me up if we really wanted to.
- I couldn't he was two years older, stronger, could rough me up if we really wanted to.
- And they get, you know, the Uber masculine Jesse Watters out there to rough up Tim Walls.
- When we do our job, if I walk in, I rough somebody up.
Examples
-
Suddenly, Snyder and the cops burst through the crowd and grab Jack, roughing him up.
Fiction book (1992) -
Now, the musician not only claims that he was wrongfully arrested, but that cops roughed him up in the process.
Blog text (16) -
I thought you was just gonna rough 'em up a bit.
-
You may get roughed up a bit.
-
Say you roughed up one of their agents.
-
I'm gonna have Barney rough you up.
-
Don't be afraid to rough him up a little.
-
Hey, that's the kid that tried to rough me up.
-
They roughed up my sister!
-
They tried to rough up the witness to scare him into silence.
Synonyms
344
3.7
To treat a person or animal cruelly to harm them
271
4.1
To attack someone by hitting them again and again to hurt them
164
3.5
To hit someone or something with an open hand
126
4.7
To attack someone physically or try to hurt them
62
4.1
Cause serious harm to people or things with a sharp object
53
9.9
To hurt or defeat someone very badly, often by hitting them
20
6.7
To move or hold someone roughly using force
15
7.6
Hit someone many times until they are badly hurt or win against them very clearly
13
7.5
Hit something hard so it breaks or opens
7
6.5
Hit someone hard, often as punishment or in a fight
1
9.8
Hit someone in the face very hard to hurt them
To hit someone as a punishment, for example by spanking
Antonyms
How Violent
- NSFW
35
7.0
126
4.7
- Offensive
271
4.1
- Offensive
35
7.3
31
2.7
∞
1.0
Surface Forms
Morphology
rough + up
The meaning 'to attack or treat (someone) violently' is directly inferable from 'rough' (treating someone in a violent/tough way) combined with the particle 'up', which often signals doing something to completion or as an intensifier. This compositional verb+particle pattern is common and a B1 learner who knows the constituents would likely deduce the intended sense.
Etymology
The phrasal verb rough up comes from the simple picture of treating someone in a rough way by hitting or pushing them, and the up part makes the action stronger. So, rough up means 'to attack or threaten someone to hurt or scare them'.