Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (orig. Aus./N.Z.) any person or animal considered tough and intractable.

1855		Bell’s Life in Sydney 12 May 3/2: A rough nugget of humanity, who called himself Bruce Hayes, was charged [...] with celebrating certain Bacchanalian orgies in King-street. [Constable] Wilson was on patrol duty, and noticing Roughey vory disorderly [...] Roughey apparently had not finished his supper, for he rushed upon the officer and bit one of his legs.
1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 21 Oct. 4/7: My oath, I’m a regular toughie / And accustomed to shuddering and shocks / But they rung in a regular roughie / When they kidded me into the box.
1907		Geraldton Guardian (WA) 17 May 3: ‘Roughie’ Maher [...] was a star of great brilliance in last Saturday’s [football] match.
1917		E.G. Dodd diary 5 Aug. 🌐 It panned out to be a regular Roughie called Jock Hall. He pulled a revolver out and put it to Tighe’s breast and shot him.
1929		K.S. Prichard Coonardoo 195: Hugh promised Warieda a piece of his mind for giving Winni such a ‘roughie’ to ride.
1932		I.L. Idriess Flynn of the Inland 293: On occasion [he] used it as a club when ‘roughies’ among the gang proved ‘obstruculous.’.
1946		J.E. Dadswell Hey, Sucker 197: I couldn’t help noticing them even in that crowd of roughies.
1947		P. Newton Wayleggo (1953) 115: Dodging old ‘roughies’ [wild cattle].
1954		J. Sanders Freak Show 88: “One of the roughies in our trailer took off [...] two nights ago.
1959		D. Niland Gold in the Streets (1966) 210: Her mate, the old roughy, was telling the world what she thought of stingy hounds.
1960		A. Buzo Front Room Boys Scene xi: I bet it’s [a horse] a roughie.
1972		A. Chipper Aussie Swearers Guide 68: Roughie. [...] Perhaps most commonly assigned to young ladies who aren’t too good-looking or too well-mannered.
1973		in C. Browne Body Shop 61: In grammar school I was a roughie [...] always getting into fights.
1974		H. Levin Bandiet 127: The catch worked equally well for the roughies who, having bucked the system in the past, inevitably had bad prison records.
1980		H. Lunn Behind Banana Curtain 59: Every roughie in the world’s got that on his farm.
2003		McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 175: roughie/roughy 1. Difficult sheep to shear, difficult sheepdog, out-of-control cattle, poorly performing racehorse, poorly qualified people or a job poorly done. Early C20 ANZ.

2. (Aus., also rough stuff) in horse and dog racing, an outsider.

1904		Sun. Times (Perth) 22 May 4/8: Never more I’ll ring a roughie in wot I’ve been keeping dark.
1908		Sun. Times (Perth) 28 June 4s: Roughie Floral came out and galloped home a ten to one winner.
1914		Sport (Adelaide) 19 June 3/6: C.E. again missed all the roughies. When they do win Charlie is not on them.
1915		Drew & Evans Grafter (1922) 1: Then he dug into the ‘rough stuff’. The Grafter knew his business.
1925		Advertiser (Adelaide) 18 June 14: ‘The longest price about a “roughie” you haven’t laid,’ a prominent backer remarked.
1934		‘Steele Rudd’ Green Grey Homestead 155: Those who had lost a wager or two will turn to Bell and say: ‘You knew something about the roughie!’ [OED].
1939		Mirror (Perth) 31 Dec. 1: [headline] Roughie Tomito Wins Today’s Perth Cup.
1947		North. Standard (Darwin, NT) 7 Nov. 7: He brought the ’roughie’ home a winner.
1951		Cusack & James Come in Spinner (1960) 46: He’s a roughie so ’e’ll go out at long odds.
1958		F.J. Hardy Four-Legged Lottery 14: I might just have a shilling on a roughie.
1996		Ozwords Oct. 🌐 roughie a horse that is a rank outsider, or an outsider with some chance of winning.

3. (Aus.) an implausible story.

1906		Sun. Times (Perth) 26 Aug. 4/8: In our kidhood sweet, / All misfortune have we met / [...] / Till we get this roughie hot, / ‘Whisky Famine Feared!’.
1924		(con. WWI) A.G. Pretty Gloss. Sl. [...] in the A.I.F. 1921–1924 (rev. t/s) n.p.: roughey. A statement diffcult to believe.

4. (Aus./N.Z.) an unqualified or incompetent worker.

1910		Truth (Sydney) 16 July 2: It is wonderful the difference a fashionable jockey makes to a horse’s price. With a ‘roughie’ on they go out at 20 to 1, but when a crack jockey is up they are often 6 to 4 propositions [AND].
1915		E.P. Williams New Zealander’s Diary (c. 1922) 27 Feb. 20: A type [...] leading characteristics anarchical tendency. Pride in being a ‘roughie’ [AND].
1975		Dominion (Wellington) 10 Mar. 2: Mr Quigley expressed concern that there were some ‘roughies’ — unqualified carpenters — engaged in building [AND].
[2012		W. Keyser ‘Carny Lingo’ in http://goodmagic.com 🌐 Roughy — A carnival employee assigned to handle miscellaneous duties [...] Sort of ‘"middle management’ on the lot].

5. (Aus.) an unpleasant place or situation.

1919

Aussie (France) 10 Jan. 10/1: My oath, that camp was a roughie; a terrible windy job: / We ’ad casualties every day – I was loosin’ me bloomin’ knob.

6. (Aus.) a fraud, a deception; esp. as put a roughie over v., to cheat.

1936		Western Mail (Perth) 30 Jan. 5s: I told jack Ryder I had a ‘roughie’ to put over him.
1939		K. Tennant Foveaux 122: Kelly put a roughie over Charlie to-day.
1941		K. Tennant Battlers 174: They felt the Apostle was ‘putting a roughie over them’. A parson ought to have a refectory or a presbytery and stay in it. What did he want to go wandering round pretending to be just a human being? And if he was one of themselves, why did he break out every now and then pretending to be a parson?
1945		Baker Aus. Lang. 265: A roughie, toughie, hottie, crookie, swiftie, smartie will all be heard in male conversation to describe a joke or trick that is either agreeable or disagreeable.
1953		Western Mail (Perth) 25 May 2: A lady employed in a newsagent’s shop put a roughie over me when I was on leave.

7. (US black) a person looking for trouble, wanting to start a fight.

1980

E. Folb Runnin’ Down Some Lines 106: Couple o’ roughies [...] come into a party and don’ wanna see it happen.

8. (N.Z.) a quick act of sexual intercourse.

2003

McGill Reed Dict. of N.Z. Sl. 175: roughie/roughy [...] 2. Quick and crude sexual bout, or any other somewhat rugged encounter, person, animal, or situation, such as a poorly told joke. Latter C20 ANZ.