Idiom idiom
roughen up
Meaning
to make something rough or rougher
Meaning adapted from Wiktionary, available under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Examples
“You should roughen up the wood before you paint it.”
“The artist used sandpaper to roughen up the surface of the metal so the paint would stick better.”
“To improve the grip on the handle, the craftsman decided to roughen up the smooth steel with a specialized grinding tool.”
Anchors to
Last updated August 10, 2026