Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. boisterous behaviour, usu. harmless.

1900		E.H. Babbitt ‘College Words and Phrases’ in DN II:i 55: rough-house, n. 1. A disorderly class. 2. Rough play.
1905		E. O’Neill in Bogard & Bryer Sel. Letters (1988) 16: We had a fine ‘rough house’ here [...] It consisted of wet towels and [...] pails and waste-baskets, thrown with intent to injure the visages of Herr professor.
1917		J.E. Rendinell diary 9 June in One Man’s War (1928) 9: He didn’t say a thing until we started to raise a rough house.
1929		E. Caldwell Bastard (1963) 35: Cut out the rough-house.
1931		J.E. Uhler Cane Juice 120: He missed nothing in the way of student rough-house.
1953		J. Thompson Savage Night (1991) 35: I started a little rough-house, and that broke the mood.
1978		R.D. Pharr Giveadamn Brown (1997) 109: Her smile was pure roughhouse.

2. physical violence, a fight.

1887		M. Roberts Western Avernus (1924) 43: He called the bridgeman a very opprobrious name, and for a moment there was great danger of a ‘rough house’ out of hand.
1899		W.J. Kountz Billy Baxter’s Letters 19: A fat fellow cut into the argument, and some one soaked him in the eye, and then, as they say in Texas, ‘there was three minutes rough house.’.
1906		Marvel 17 Nov. 466: The cry went up, ‘Rough house – rough house!’ and the place was soon in pandemonium.
1911		Dly Ardmoreite (OK) 2 Oct. 5/4: Smith proceeded to paint the town a bright vermillion [...] and to start a rough house at his home.
1915		Wodehouse Psmith Journalist (1993) 251: ‘What’s bin the rough house?’ inquired one of the policemen.
1918		Aussie (France) 8 Oct. 3/2: ‘Pit yer hands up!’ / For the next five minutes there was what Diggers commonly call ‘a rough house.’.
1929		(con. 1916) F. Manning Her Privates We (1986) 31: They were two able-bodied six-footers [...] and I stood a pretty poor chance if they chose to make a rough-house of it.
1941		‘Digg Mee’ ‘Observation Post’ in N.Y. Age 24 May 9/7: It mayn’t be real, but ‘Roughouse’ slays the field.
1946		S. Jackson Indiscreet Guide to Soho 92: Not so funny were the rough-houses that developed among the members.
1955		B. Schulberg On the Waterfront (1964) 56: Johnny didn’t like a roughhouse in the back room.
1957		G. Kersh Fowlers End (2001) 9: They owed us two rough-houses and were biding their time.
1962		H. Livings Nil Carborundum (1963) Act III: If you get into a rough-house, don’t leave any marks.
1976		C. Dexter Last Seen Wearing in Second Morse Omnibus (1994) 405: The last thing that Morse wanted at this juncture was a rough-house.
2005		H. Mantel Beyond Black 246: Keef he likes a bit of a rough-house and the chance of a ruckus.

3. attrib. use of sense 2.

1938

G. Kersh Night and the City 208: Kration’s not a wrestler; he’s a rough-house specialist; a killer.

4. unpleasant behaviour.

1957		Laurents & Sondheim West Side Story I i: If I don’t put down the roughhouse, I get put down – on a traffic corner.
1962		R. Hauser Homosexual Society 49: No risk and no nonsense. There’s no rough-house.
2003		G. Tate Midnight Lightning 17: His mid-career desire to connect with Black audiences probably did make him guilt-trippingly available to entreaties, rough-house and otherwise, from militants.