Green’s Dictionary of Slang

1. (gay) a violent sexual partner; often a man who is, or poses as, a construction worker, serviceman, truck driver, motorcyclist etc, with appropriate costumes, often of leather (although note cit. 1949).

[1900		O. Wilde letter [late Mar.] in Holland Complete Letters (2000) 1177: Alex [...] saw me with a beautiful boy in grey velvet – half rough, all Hylas].
c.1925		R. McAlmon Miss Knight (1963) 59: Miss Knight [...] discovered a beautiful blond policeman who was real rough trade.
1932		‘R. Scully’ Scarlet Pansy 147: ‘I like ’em rough and strong and sturdy, you know.’ ‘Oh, Aunty Beach-Bütsch, don’t! Rough trade after you’re through with it, is such a bore!’.
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ et al. Gay Girl’s Guide 14: rough trade: Generally used in contrast to gay trade as indicating subject will not even kiss, and is thus of untainted normality. Basically, a straight one who just likes to be ‘blown’, though a completely homosexual person can assume this role on occasion too. Highly prized by many belles in reaction to their usual effeminate associates [...] Sometimes used incorrectly as synonymous with dirt, though there is no implication of violence in the term. [Ibid.] 36: Rough trade will be found to maintain a passive attitude replete with remnants of pride.
1949		‘Swasarnt Nerf’ Gaedicker’s Sodom-on-the-Hudson 2: The most friendly camaraderie between the roughest of trade and the swishiest of faggots.
1953		C. Brossard Bold Saboteurs (1971) 15: It amused his warped ego to be what the queers called ‘rough trade.’.
1965		A. James America’s Homosexual Underground 78: I had an address book [...] packed with tricks from ‘drag queens’ to rough trade.
1977		S. Berkoff East in Decadence and Other Plays (1985) 71: Ageing movie stars cruising for rough trade and liking the leather-loin boys.
1989		T. Blacker Fixx 294: Campari soda with a spot of rough trade in a leather lounge.
1997		D. Farson Never a Normal Man 3: There was a certain irony in my search for rough trade in Istanbul.
2000		C. Cook Robbers (2001) 315: Maybe you flip both ways. Maybe you get off on rough trade, too.
2019		P. Baker Fabulosa 297/1: rough trade a masculine, working-class sexual partner who may >not identify as gay and might become violent or demand money after sex.

2. a male heterosexual who has intercourse with a male homosexual.

1965		Guild Dict. Homosexual Terms 39: rough trade (n.): [...] (2) A heterosexual who has sex with a homosexual.
2003		K. Cage Gayle 92/1: rough trade n. rent boys from working class backgrounds, usually Afrikaans-speaking, often not gay themselves, but dependent on male prostitution to make extra pocket money.

3. (US) an individual or environment seen as tough.

1972		E. Grogan Ringolevio 77: Wisdom was just ‘rough trade’ to the Fauntleroys who suppressed their giggles.
1991		B. McCarthy Vice Cop 190: Al Gold [...] himself was sometimes terrified by the rough trade that began moving in. [...] Some of the new customers were slapping the women around.
2007		C. Goffard Snitch Jacket 56: You’re a dangerous character [...] Rough trade. A nasty little number.
2023		F. Bill Back to the Dirt 144: ‘[The bar is] rough trade. Lot of pot smoking, pill popping, whiskey, beer, gambling over card games [...] the occasional fistfight’.