roughing (up)

verb

present participle of rough (up)
1
as in licking
to strike repeatedly she was badly roughed up by her boxing partner

Synonyms & Similar Words

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2
as in abusing
to abuse physically the photographer claimed that he had been roughed up by the actor's bodyguards outside the club

Synonyms & Similar Words

Antonyms & Near Antonyms

Example Sentences

Recent Examples of Synonyms for roughing (up)
  1. licking
  2. abusing
  3. pounding
  4. attacking
  5. hiding
  6. manhandling
  7. lashing
  8. mauling
Verb
  • Carter is licking his wounds after the rest of the tribe sent Ana home in a blindside.
    — Jason P. Frank, Vulture, 8 Oct. 2026
  • Typically, only a low-value male resorts to this behavior, turning to foot-licking as the easiest way to ingratiate himself with women.
    — Tucker Reals, CBS News, 8 Oct. 2026
Definition of licking
Verb
  • As Rolling Stone and Sportico have reported, the Riverside plaintiffs all allege that the church should have known that Lorch was abusing children.
    — Luke Cyphers, Rolling Stone, 7 Oct. 2026
  • Damian Reynolds, 34, was sentenced to a 20-year prison sentence — the maximum allowed under the law —after he was convicted of abusing two women, according to the Ada County Prosecutor’s Office.
    — Alex Brizee, Idaho Statesman, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of abusing
Verb
  • Many spectators watched pounding waves there at high tide Saturday morning.
    — Jaweed Kaleem, Los Angeles Times, 10 Oct. 2026
  • Guadagnino has always been skilled in his choice of music (Sufjan Stevens’ alt-pop in Call Me by Your Name, Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross’ pounding EDM in Challengers).
    — David Rooney, HollywoodReporter, 6 Oct. 2026
Definition of pounding
Verb
  • Murtis of the goddess Durga depict her astride a lion and attacking Mahishasura.
    — Tamanna Nangia, Encyclopedia Britannica, 5 Oct. 2026
  • The president appeared to be attacking Andrews, a biological woman, over her alleged support of gender transitions for minors and transgender athletes in women’s sports.
    — David Zimmermann, The Washington Examiner, 5 Oct. 2026
Definition of attacking
Verb
  • The series brings 10 strangers together in an institutional setting for seven days, with each person trying to guess the true occupations of the others while hiding their own identities.
    — Cynthia Littleton, Variety, 12 Oct. 2026
  • Officers found Blanco hiding in the basement of a nearby home and recovered a knife from a panel box, police said.
    — Stepheny Price, FOXNews.com, 11 Oct. 2026
Definition of hiding
Verb
  • Hours later, Sarah Huckabee Sanders, the White House press secretary, announced the suspension of Acosta’s press pass, and, for good measure, falsely accused him of manhandling the aide who wanted the mike back.
    — Jon Allsop, New Yorker, 22 Sep. 2026
  • Ashley Delaney of Polk City, who has served on the district's board since 2024, was charged in May with misdemeanor assault for allegedly manhandling the student.
    — William Morris, Des Moines Register, 14 Aug. 2026
Definition of manhandling
Verb
  • These are just two of the many scenes of destruction the hurricane has left in Hawaii after lashing the state’s western islands with heavy rain, widespread flooding and tropical-storm-force winds on Monday and Tuesday.
    — Liz Kreutz, NBC news, 9 Sep. 2026
  • This week’s meeting of G20 finance ministers underscored rising global trade tensions, with several countries, including the US, lashing out at China.
    — Jeronimo Gonzalez, semafor.com, 4 Sep. 2026
Definition of lashing
Verb
  • At the time, Guilfoyle was an assistant DA in San Francisco prosecuting a high-profile dog-mauling case and making the rounds on cable news.
    — Joe Hagan, Vanity Fair, 30 Sep. 2026
  • While the left guard competition remains open, Jones has been on the first string for over a week since replacing Connor Colby, and Jones stood out with an aggressive, mauling nature against the Titans.
    — Cam Inman, Mercury News, 11 Aug. 2026
Definition of mauling
Examples are automatically compiled from online sources to show current usage. Read More Opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback.

Browse Nearby Words

roughing it
roughing (up)
rough it
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Cite this Entry

“Roughing (up).” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roughing%20%28up%29. Accessed 12 Oct. 2026.

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