RUDE • FREE TRANSLATOR.ORG • Definition of Rude

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adjective

Rude adj. (compar. ruder; superl. rudest)

1.

Characterized by roughness; umpolished; raw; lacking delicacy or refinement; coarse. "Such gardening tools as art, yet rude,... had formed."

2.

Hence, specifically:

(a)

Unformed by taste or skill; not nicely finished; not smoothed or polished; said especially of material things; as, rude workmanship. "Rude was the cloth." "Rude and unpolished stones." "The heaven-born child All meanly wrapt in the rude manger lies."

(b)

Of untaught manners; unpolished; of low rank; uncivil; clownish; ignorant; raw; unskillful; said of persons, or of conduct, skill, and the like. "Mine ancestors were rude." "He was but rude in the profession of arms." "the rude forefathers of the hamlet sleep."

(c)

Violent; tumultuous; boisterous; inclement; harsh; severe; said of the weather, of storms, and the like; as, the rude winter. "(Clouds) pushed with winds, rude in their shock." "The rude agitation (of water) breaks it into foam."

(d)

Barbarous; fierce; bloody; impetuous; said of war, conflict, and the like; as, the rude shock of armies.

(e)

Not finished or complete; inelegant; lacking chasteness or elegance; not in good taste; unsatisfactory in mode of treatment; said of literature, language, style, and the like. "The rude Irish books." "Rude am I in my speech." "Unblemished by my rude translation."

Synonyms: Impertinent; rough; uneven; shapeless; unfashioned; rugged; artless; unpolished; uncouth; inelegant; rustic; coarse; vulgar; clownish; raw; unskillful; untaught; illiterate; ignorant; uncivil; impolite; saucy; impudent; insolent; surly; currish; churlish; brutal; uncivilized; barbarous; savage; violent; fierce; tumultuous; turbulent; impetuous; boisterous; harsh; inclement; severe. See Impertiment.

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Etymology of 'Rude'

Collaborative International Dictionary of English 0.48

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"Rude" Quotes from Famous Books

... he went to the wood to visit the girl. Her mother was dead, and her father was out in the fields digging. The prince knocked, but no one opened. He knocked louder, but the same thing. The young girl was deaf to him. Finally, tired of waiting, he broke open the door and entered: "Rude girl! who taught you not to open to one of my rank? Where are your father and mother?" "Who knew it was you? My father is where he should be and my mother is weeping for her sins. You must leave, for I have something else ...

— Italian Popular Tales • Thomas Frederick Crane

... a bow that was supposed to include father and daughter. He did not know whether this was a regular introduction, and even if it had been he would not have known what to do. The young woman made no attempt to return the salutation, not that she was rude, but she had the air of regarding it as a frivolous interruption to weighty matters. She fixed David with eyes, small, black, and bright as a squirrel's, so devoid of any recognition that he was a member of the rival sex—or, in fact, of the human family—that his self-consciousness ...

— The Emigrant Trail • Geraldine Bonner

... small boats next. In one the summer girl was all lace and parasol, in another there was a rude fisherman, then; some boys were dressed to look like dandies, and they seemed to enjoy themselves more than did the people looking at them. There was also a craft fixed up to look like ...

— The Bobbsey Twins at the Seashore • Laura Lee Hope

... of last century was a very different city from the Glasgow of to-day. It was in size and appearance a mere provincial town of 23,000 inhabitants. Broom still grew on the Broomielaw; a few cobles were the only craft on the river; and the rude wharf was the resort of idlers, watching the fishermen on the opposite side cast for salmon, and draw up netfuls on the green bank. The Clyde was not deepened till 1768. Before that the whole tonnage dues at Glasgow ...

— Life of Adam Smith • John Rae

... one left in his own stead a devil in his body, and in that of one of his near kin, who committed the treachery together with him. But now stretch out hither thy hand; open my eyes for me." And I opened them not for him, and to be rude to ...

— The Divine Comedy, Volume 1, Hell [The Inferno] • Dante Alighieri

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