Make Your Point > Archived Issues > ROUGHSHOD
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pronounce
ROUGHSHOD:
Say it "RUFF shod."
To hear it, click here.
connect this word to others:
When your friend says, "My manager is riding roughshod over all of us," it's pretty clear what she means, and we sympathize. But what exactly does roughshod mean? Does it involve shoes?
Yes! We're about to explore that!
But first, see if you can recall a related word that also involves shoes, so to speak: ____shod things are sloppy and careless in a way that reminds you of someone shuffling around awkwardly in loose shoes.
(To reveal any word with blanks, give it a click.)
definition:
Literally speaking, to be "shod" is to be "shoed:" that is, to be wearing shoes.
A shod horse is one that's wearing shoes. (And a shod shovel, or a shod arrow, is wearing a "shoe" of metal.)
If a horse's shoes have been roughly attached, with the nails poking out, then the horse is roughshod. (Here, for the sake of understanding the word, it doesn't matter whether the installation was sloppily done or purposefully done to help the horse get a better grip on the ground. Either way, the nail heads are poking out.)
If you literally "ride roughshod over" something, or "run roughshod over" it, you're riding your horse over it and pounding it with those nail heads that poke out.
If you run or ride roughshod over something figuratively, you're treating it in a rough, cruel way.
So, roughshod things are rough and cruel, in a way that suggests riding over things on a horse with nail heads poking out of its shoes.
grammatical bits:
Part of speech:
Usually it's an adverb, in phrases like "to run roughshod over" and "to ride roughshod over."
Sometimes it's an adjective: "her roughshod manners."
Other forms: None are in use. (Do you think we can make "roughshoddiness" happen?)
how to use it:
This fun-to-say word helps you express how someone's bossiness, or someone's disregard for things and people, has veered into cruelty and brutality.
We mostly stick to the (nicely alliterative) phrases "run roughshod over" and "ride roughshod over:"
"She runs roughshod over the customers."
"He rode roughshod over the rules of these debates."
"This is them running roughshod over the entire fact-checking industry" (Slate).
But you can also swap in your own verb: talk about, for example, walking, treading, or trampling roughshod over people, situations, and abstract things. Just keep to that basic metaphor of horseback-riding: you wouldn't want to mix your metaphors by talking about, for example, "rolling roughshod over" something.
And it's rare, but you can free this word completely from that phrase, and simply talk about roughshod manners, attitudes, behavior, decisions, management styles, etc.
examples:
"Yet I did not die. While I lay waiting to do so the insistent ache of my bones... slowly blurred me into apathy... Centuries trampled roughshod over me."
— Charles Neville Buck; Chapter XI: I Find Myself a Demi-God, The Portal of Dreams; 1912
"[He was a dictator] who ran roughshod over the democratic freedoms of religion, speech, the press, assembly, dissent and protections from arbitrary arrest, imprisonment and death."
— Joseph Betz, Fox News, 26 February 2020
has this page helped you understand "roughshod"?
study it:
Explain the meaning of "roughshod" without saying "overbearing" or "domineering."
try it out:
Think of something that, in your opinion, has gotten out of control.
Fill in the blanks: "_____ has run roughshod over _____."
Example 1: "He argues that political correctness has run roughshod over academia."
Example 2: "The call of Iyad Rahwan and colleagues for a science of 'machine behaviour' that empirically studies artificial intelligence (AI) 'in the wild' is an example of 'columbusing'. That is, what they claim to have discovered is, in fact, an existing field of study that has been producing vibrant, engaged research for decades... Columbusing fails to give due credit. It rides roughshod over long-fought struggles to centre science and technology's ethical implications for crucial issues such as inclusivity and diversity."
— Emanuel Moss, Rumman Chowdhury, Bogdana Rakova, Sonja Schmer-Galunder, Reuben Binns, & Andrew Smart, Nature, 8 October 2019
before you review, play:
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
This month, our game is "Caption These!"
In each issue this month, caption the images below (A, B, and C) by matching them to the vocabulary words they illustrate (1, 2, and 3). Need a closer look? Give the images a click. And, if you can, explain the exact meaning of each word. I'll share the answers in the following issue. Good luck!
From the previous issue:
Answers:
A: obtuse, B: acute, C: oblique.
(To review a word, give it a click.)
Try these today:
1: akimbo
2: closefisted
3: diametric
review this word:
A. YIELDING.
B. INTRUDING.
C. GLABROUS (smooth and hairless).
2. In the Los Angeles Times, Kevin Baxter points out that "[Soccer player Zlatan] Ibrahimović is _____ when he lets his _____ run roughshod over news conferences."
A. hilarious .. cheesy grin
B. dangerous .. oversized ego
C. charming .. Swedish accent
a final word:
I hope you're enjoying Make Your Point. It's made with love.
I'm Liesl Johnson, a reading and writing tutor on a mission to explore, illuminate, and celebrate words.
From my blog:
36 ways to study words.
Why we forget words, & how to remember them.
How to use sophisticated words without being awkward.
To be a sponsor and include your ad in an issue, please contact me at Liesl@HiloTutor.com.
Disclaimer: When I write definitions, I use plain language and stick to the words' common, useful applications. If you're interested in authoritative and multiple definitions of words, I encourage you to check a dictionary. Also, because I'm American, I stick to American English when I share words' meanings, usage, and pronunciations; these elements sometimes vary across world Englishes.
When your friend says, "My manager is riding roughshod over all of us," it's pretty clear what she means, and we sympathize. But what exactly does roughshod mean? Does it involve shoes?
Literally speaking, to be "shod" is to be "shoed:" that is, to be wearing shoes.
Part of speech:
This fun-to-say word helps you express how someone's bossiness, or someone's disregard for things and people, has veered into cruelty and brutality.
"Yet I did not die. While I lay waiting to do so the insistent ache of my bones... slowly blurred me into apathy... Centuries trampled roughshod over me."
Explain the meaning of "roughshod" without saying "overbearing" or "domineering."
Think of something that, in your opinion, has gotten out of control.
Try to spend 20 seconds or more on the game below. Don’t skip straight to the review—first, let your working memory empty out.
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