rough-and-tumble
Americanadjective
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characterized by violent, random, disorderly action and struggles.
a rough-and-tumble fight; He led an adventuresome, rough-and-tumble life.
-
given to such action.
noun
noun
adjective
Etymology
Origin of rough-and-tumble
First recorded in 1785–95
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
The daughter of a Marine father and a trauma nurse mother, Murphy grew up outside of Chicago as a rough-and-tumble kid.
Yet to many he was best experienced onstage, where he’d thread his songs into a kind of running monologue about his rough-and-tumble life.
From Los Angeles Times
Abstraction meets landscape; painterly application meets rough-and-tumble applications.
This may work in some of the rough-and-tumble scraps of urban politics, but it’s hardly the approach of someone who wants to unite a city as important as New York.
Indeed, the Maddens found a certain frisson from the get-go in writing about their rough-and-tumble upbringing with a squeaky-clean pop flair.
From Los Angeles Times
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
