rugged

[Paul Frank]

On Sat, Feb 5, 2011 at 4:31 PM,  <ronbutters at aol.com> wrote:
> the authors put the word in quote marks. to me, this indicates that they view it as unusual--a nonce usage that is slightly figurative. So why would the OED specifically mention weather? Unless it is an established usage, it does not belong in a dictionary.

Google Books gives 2,670 for "rugged weather."

Webster's New World College Dictionary (2010) has this under "rugged":

stormy; tempestuous: rugged weather


The Encarta English dictionary says this for "rugged":

8. stormy: affected by violent and dangerous storms

The American Heritage Dictionary says:

6. tempestuous; stormy: rugged weather.


Sounds pretty established to me.

Paul

Paul Frank
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