rough-and-tumble

Example Sentences

Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.

If EVs are coming for the world, this is the rough-and-tumble frontier.

From Barron's • Jun. 8, 2026

A stage adaptation can’t duplicate the way Lumet visually distilled the rough-and-tumble New York zeitgeist of the tumultuous early 1970s.

From Los Angeles Times • Apr. 29, 2026

This may work in some of the rough-and-tumble scraps of urban politics, but it’s hardly the approach of someone who wants to unite a city as important as New York.

From The Wall Street Journal • Oct. 29, 2025

Bottle kicking is not the only peculiar rough-and-tumble English tradition that comes with a risk of injury.

From BBC • Apr. 26, 2025

They were a rough-and-tumble bunch, not very worldly, but earnest and used to hard work.

From "The Boys in the Boat: Nine Americans and Their Epic Quest for Gold at the 1936 Berlin Olympics" by Daniel James Brown