Definition of "rough-hew" [rough-hew]

• To hew or shape (timber, for example) roughly, without finishing. (verb-transitive)
• To make in rough form. (verb-transitive)

American Heritage(R) Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition. Copyright (c) 2011 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. All rights reserved.

• "Then a rash impulse swept me -- and praise be for such things: instinct sometimes serves us well when our plans begin to falter; and that should teach us there's a divinity that shapes our ends, rough-hew them however we will."
• "Shelley rails against Adam Smith in Queen Mab v, but at the level of the ideologeme is expressed the hope that Adam Smith was right, and that an invisible hand will shape our ends, rough-hew them how we will."
• "Every man had the right to rough-hew his own life."