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Rugged vs Robust - What's the difference?

rugged | robust |

As adjectives the difference between rugged and robust

is that rugged is broken into sharp or irregular points; uneven; not smooth; rough while robust is evincing strength; indicating vigorous health; strong; sinewy; muscular; vigorous; sound; as, a robust body; robust youth; robust health.

As a verb rugged

is past tense of rug.

rugged

English

(Webster 1913)

Etymology 1

From (etyl) .

Adjective

(er)
  • Broken into sharp or irregular points; uneven; not smooth; rough
  • * 1870 , (Mark Twain), Roughing It , Chapter LXV
    • By and by, after a rugged climb, we halted on the summit of a hill which commanded a far-reaching view.
  • Not neat or regular; irregular, uneven.
  • * 2011 , Ronke Luke-Boone, African Fabrics: Sewing Contemporary Fashion with Ethic Flair
    • Commercially produced yarn, such as rayon, produces a cloth with a smoother, shinier look than hand-spun cotton, but the uneven, rugged look of hand-spun cotton can be quite appealing.
  • Rough with bristles or hair; shaggy.
  • * 1897 , Kate Chopin, A Morning Walk
    • His hair was light and rather thin; his face strong and rugged from exposure, and his eyes narrow and observant.
  • (of a person) strong, sturdy, well-built
  • * 2010 , Arthru Queen Jr., Young Man: Ageless Fatherly Wisdom to Hold
    • Many women and men delude themselves into thinking that only the hardest and most rugged man is attractive and to many it may be the case.
  • (of land) rocky and bare of plantlife
  • * 2013 , Vicky Baker in The Guardian , Riding with the cowboys on a Mexico ranch
    • Hidden within 30,000 acres of rugged private land, the ranch is cocooned by peaks and canyons in all directions.
  • * 1971 , United States Forest Service, Search for solitude: our wilderness heritage
    • Much of the area can be seen only by hikers who travel without trails to the higher reaches of this rugged mountain range.
  • Harsh; austere; hard; crabbed; -- said of temper, character, and the like, or of persons.
  • Stormy; turbulent; tempestuous; rude.
  • Harsh; grating; rough to the ear -- said of sound, style, and the like.
  • Sour; surly; frowning; wrinkled; -- said of looks, etc.
  • * 1908 , Rafael Sabatini, The Abduction
    • "Ah!" sighed the unimaginative Granby, and his honest, rugged face grew clouded. Pepper puffed in silence for a moment or two; then spoke.
  • Violent; rude; boisterous; -- said of conduct, manners, etc.
  • Vigorous; robust; hardy; -- said of health, physique, etc.
  • * 1909 , (Jack London), Martin Eden
    • "Her gaze rested for a moment on the muscular neck, heavy corded, almost bull-like, bronzed by the sun, spilling over with rugged health and strength..."
  • (computing, of a computer) designed to reliably operate in harsh usage environments and conditions
  • * 2011 , Nick Fletcher, Psion drops 2% after supply chain issues push it into loss
    • Psion, which supplies a range of rugged hand held computers, has lost nearly 2% after announcing a plunge into the red.
    Derived terms
    * ruggedize * ruggedly * ruggedness * semirugged

    References

    External links

    * *

    Etymology 2

    (rug) + (-ed)

    Adjective

    (-)
  • Having a rug or rugs.
  • Covered with a rug.

    • Verb

    (head)
  • (rug)

    • Anagrams

    * English heteronyms

    robust

    English

    Adjective

    (er)
  • Evincing strength; indicating vigorous health; strong; sinewy; muscular; vigorous; sound; as, a robust body; robust youth; robust health.
    • He was a robust man of six feet four.
  • * Anthony Trollope (1815-1882)
    • She was stronger, larger, more robust physically than he had hitherto conceived.
  • Violent; rough; rude.
  • * {{quote-news
    • , year=2011 , date=October 1 , author=Phil McNulty , title=Everton 0 - 2 Liverpool , work=BBC Sport citation , page= , passage=As a frenetic opening continued, Cahill - whose robust approach had already prompted Jamie Carragher to register his displeasure to Atkinson - rose above the Liverpool defence to force keeper Pepe Reina into an athletic tip over the top.}}
  • Requiring strength or vigor; as, robust employment.
  • Sensible (of intellect etc.); straightforward, not given to or confused by uncertainty or subtlety;
  • (systems engineering) Designed or evolved in such a way as to be resistant to total failure despite partial damage.
  • (software engineering) Resistant or impervious to failure regardless of user input or unexpected conditions.
  • (statistics) Not greatly influenced by errors in assumptions about the distribution of sample errors.

    • Usage notes

    * "More" and "most robust" are much more common than the forms ending in "-er" or "-est".

    Derived terms

    * robustness

    See also

    * (Robust statistics)

    Anagrams

    * * ----