English

Alternative forms

• rough-and-ready

Adjective

rough and ready ‎(comparative more rough and ready, superlative most rough and ready)

1. (idiomatic, often hyphenated when placed immediately before the modified noun) Crude or unpolished, but still fit for use; good enough.
   • 1849, James Fenimore Cooper, The Sea Lions, ch. 15:

     [A] dozen Americans could, at any time, construct a house, the ‘rough and ready’ habits of the people usually teaching them, in a rude way, a good deal of a great many other arts, besides this of the carpenter.

   • 1903, Samuel Butler, The Way of All Flesh, ch. 65:

     There was a rough and ready rule-of-thumb test of truth.

   • 1996 Dec. 4, Roderick Conway Morris, "10 Years of Enlightenment: An Unusual Orchestra Celebrates," New York Times (retrieved 4 June 2014):

     "Things were a lot more rough and ready, but there was a kind of raw beauty about it."

   • 2004 Nov. 8, Michael D. Lemonick and Bryan Walsh, "How We Grew So Big," Time (retrieved 4 June 2014):

     Doctors define overweight and obesity by a rough-and-ready measurement called the body mass index (BMI).

See also

• diamond in the rough
• quick-and-dirty
• rough around the edges