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RUGGED
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I. (adjective)
Sense 1
Meaning:
Sturdy and strong in constitution or construction; enduring
Example:
with a house full of boys you have to have rugged furniture
Classified under:
Similar:
knockabout (suitable for rough use)
sturdy; tough (substantially made or constructed)
Also:
robust (sturdy and strong in form, constitution, or construction)
strong (having strength or power greater than average or expected)
tough; toughened (physically toughened)
Attribute:
strength (the property of being physically or mentally strong)
Antonym:
delicate (exquisitely fine and subtle and pleasing; susceptible to injury)
Derivation:
ruggedness (the property of being big and strong)
Sense 2
Meaning:
Very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution
Example:
it was a tough job
Synonyms:
rugged; tough
Classified under:
Similar:
difficult; hard (not easy; requiring great physical or mental effort to accomplish or comprehend or endure)
Derivation:
ruggedness (the quality of being difficult to do)
Sense 3
Meaning:
Topographically very uneven
Example:
rugged ground
Synonyms:
broken; rugged
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
rough; unsmooth (having or caused by an irregular surface)
Derivation:
ruggedness (the quality of being topologically uneven)
Sense 4
Meaning:
Having long narrow shallow depressions (as grooves or wrinkles) in the surface
Example:
his furrowed face lit by a warming smile
Synonyms:
furrowed; rugged
Classified under:
Adjectives
Similar:
canaliculate (having thin parallel channels)
corrugated (shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges)
Context examples:
The Havanese gives a rugged impression of a little dog; it is sturdy and not fragile.
(Havanese, NCI Thesaurus)
Her gaze rested for a moment on the muscular neck, heavy corded, almost bull-like, bronzed by the sun, spilling over with rugged health and strength.
(Martin Eden, by Jack London)
“So we kept looking around,” Woo said, saying the next option was photosynthetic bacteria called cyanobacteria because it is “more rugged” and could survive with heart cells in a petri dish.
(Oxygen-Producing Bacteria Could Help Heart Attack Sufferers, VOA News)
I shall call hills steep, which ought to be bold; surfaces strange and uncouth, which ought to be irregular and rugged; and distant objects out of sight, which ought only to be indistinct through the soft medium of a hazy atmosphere.
(Sense and Sensibility, by Jane Austen)
The two 1kg autonomous vehicles hop around the rugged landscape of the asteroid, taking advantage of its minimal gravity by leaping distances of up to 50 feet (15 meters) – journeys which can take up to 15 minutes to complete given the asteroid’s low gravity.
(First Ever Video of Asteroid Sent Back to Earth by Japanese Rovers, The Titi Tudorancea Bulletin)
He expressed once, and but once in my hearing, a strong sense of the rugged charm of the hills, and an inborn affection for the dark roof and hoary walls he called his home; but there was more of gloom than pleasure in the tone and words in which the sentiment was manifested; and never did he seem to roam the moors for the sake of their soothing silence—never seek out or dwell upon the thousand peaceful delights they could yield.
(Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontë)
Mr. Utterson the lawyer was a man of a rugged countenance that was never lighted by a smile; cold, scanty and embarrassed in discourse; backward in sentiment; lean, long, dusty, dreary and yet somehow lovable.
(The Strange Case Of Dr. Jekyll And Mr. Hyde, by Robert Louis Stevenson)
The researchers identified other peaks of similar height within the Mithrim Montes, as well as in the rugged region known as Xanadu, and in collections of more isolated peaks called ridge belts located near the landing site of ESA's Huygens probe.
(Cassini Spies Titan's Tallest Peaks, NASA)
One day last spring, in town, I was in company with two men, striking instances of what I am talking of; Lord St Ives, whose father we all know to have been a country curate, without bread to eat; I was to give place to Lord St Ives, and a certain Admiral Baldwin, the most deplorable-looking personage you can imagine; his face the colour of mahogany, rough and rugged to the last degree; all lines and wrinkles, nine grey hairs of a side, and nothing but a dab of powder at top. 'In the name of heaven, who is that old fellow?' said I to a friend of mine who was standing near, (Sir Basil Morley).
(Persuasion, by Jane Austen)
“How chanced it at Poictiers, good Master Aylward?” asked one of the young archers, leaning upon his elbows, with his eyes fixed respectfully upon the old bowman's rugged face.
(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)
