Definitions

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 5th Edition.

  • adjective Ill-mannered, discourteous, or insulting.
  • adjective Undeveloped or uncivilized; primitive.
  • adjective Crude, unfinished, or made with limited skill.
  • adjective In a natural, raw state.
  • adjective Unpleasantly forceful or harsh.
  • adjective Chiefly British Vigorous or robust.
  • adjective Archaic Lacking education or refinement.

from The Century Dictionary.

  • Rudely.
  • Rough; crude; unwrought; unfashioned; ill-fashioned; without finish or shapeliness: as, a rude mass of material.
  • Lacking cultivation, refinement, or elegance; clumsy; uncouth: as, rude verses; rude art.
  • Mean; humble; little known or regarded; hence, as said of persons, low by birth or position.
  • Barbarous; uncivilized; unpolished; ignorant.
  • Having a fierce or cruel disposition; ferocious; sanguinary; savage; brutal.
  • Marked by or expressing fierceness or savageness; ferocious, fierce, or cruel in quality.
  • Ill-bred; boorish; uncivil; discourteous; impolite.
  • Marked, by incivility; contrary to the requirements of. courtesy: as, rude conduct; a rude remark.
  • Rough; tempestuous; stormy: as, a rude gale; rude weather.
  • Robust; sturdy; rugged; vigorous.
  • Synonyms Ill-shaped, raw, uncouth, unformed.
  • 7 and Vulgar, loutish, boorish, ill-bred, insolent, surly, churlish, gruff, brusk.
  • Harsh, inclement, violent, turbulent.

from the GNU version of the Collaborative International Dictionary of English.

  • adjective Characterized by roughness; umpolished; raw; lacking delicacy or refinement; coarse.
  • adjective Unformed by taste or skill; not nicely finished; not smoothed or polished; -- said especially of material things.
  • adjective Of untaught manners; unpolished; of low rank; uncivil; clownish; ignorant; raw; unskillful; -- said of persons, or of conduct, skill, and the like.
  • adjective Violent; tumultuous; boisterous; inclement; harsh; severe; -- said of the weather, of storms, and the like.
  • adjective Barbarous; fierce; bloody; impetuous; -- said of war, conflict, and the like; as, the rude shock of armies.
  • adjective 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.

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • adjective Bad mannered.
  • adjective Obscene, pornographic, offensive.
  • adjective Tough, robust.
  • adjective Undeveloped, unskilled, basic.
  • adjective Hearty, vigorous; found particularly in the phrase rude health.

from WordNet 3.0 Copyright 2006 by Princeton University. All rights reserved.

  • adjective (used especially of commodities) being unprocessed or manufactured using only simple or minimal processes
  • adjective (of persons) lacking in refinement or grace
  • adjective lacking civility or good manners
  • adjective socially incorrect in behavior
  • adjective belonging to an early stage of technical development; characterized by simplicity and (often) crudeness

Etymologies

from The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, 4th Edition

[Middle English, from Old French, unrefined, harsh, from Latin rudis, in a natural state, crude, ignorant.]

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From Middle English, from Old French, from Latin rudis ("rough, raw, rude, wild, untilled").

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Examples

Comments

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  • Any connection for this word, in the distant past, with "red"? I know that the word "evil" is related to "village" and carries some kind of prejudice against those people who live outside of our zone, somewhere else. So is "rude" referring to some kind of "red" people?

    March 25, 2010