RUGGED

Pronunciation (US):

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IPA (US):

 Dictionary entry overview: What does rugged mean? 

• RUGGED (adjective)
  The adjective RUGGED has 4 senses:

1. sturdy and strong in constitution or construction; enduring

2. having long narrow shallow depressions (as grooves or wrinkles) in the surface

3. topographically very uneven

4. very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution

  Familiarity information: RUGGED used as an adjective is uncommon.

 Dictionary entry details 

• RUGGED (adjective)

Sense 1

Meaning:

Sturdy and strong in constitution or construction; enduring

Context example:

with a house full of boys you have to have rugged furniture

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:

Having long narrow shallow depressions (as grooves or wrinkles) in the surface

Synonyms:

furrowed; rugged

Context example:

his furrowed face lit by a warming smile

Similar:

canaliculate (having thin parallel channels)

corrugated (shaped into alternating parallel grooves and ridges)

rutted; rutty (full of ruts)

Sense 3

Meaning:

Topographically very uneven

Synonyms:

broken; rugged

Context example:

rugged ground

Similar:

rough; unsmooth (having or caused by an irregular surface)

Derivation:

ruggedness (the quality of being topologically uneven)

Sense 4

Meaning:

Very difficult; severely testing stamina or resolution

Synonyms:

rugged; tough

Context example:

it was a tough job

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)

 Context examples 

For our path in life, my Dora, said I, warming with the subject, is stony and rugged now, and it rests with us to smooth it.

(David Copperfield, by Charles Dickens)

Bennu also revealed itself to be more rugged than expected, challenging the mission team to alter its flight and sample collection plans, due to the rough terrain.

(NASA Mission Reveals Asteroid Has Big Surprises, NASA)

There was no change of expression in the rugged features of the doctor.

(The Return of Sherlock Holmes, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

I trust that you will never hear them so sung, with tears upon rugged cheeks, and catchings of the breath from strong men.

(Rodney Stone, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

“Old John will bide at home, sire,” said the rugged soldier.

(The White Company, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

Or go skiing in rugged mountains and enter a gorgeous winter wonderland. (Snow is frozen water, of course, so snow, too, is ruled by Pisces.)

(AstrologyZone.com, by Susan Miller)

Immense and rugged mountains of ice often barred up my passage, and I often heard the thunder of the ground sea, which threatened my destruction.

(Frankenstein, by Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley)

Besides, the water was frightfully cold, and his was anything but a rugged constitution.

(The Sea-Wolf, by Jack London)

Finally, there was our host, with his rugged, eagle face, and his cold, blue, glacier eyes with always a shimmer of devilment and of humor down in the depths of them.

(The Lost World, by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle)

The road was rugged, but still we seemed to fly over it with a feverish haste.

(Dracula, by Bram Stoker)