ˈkō(ə)rs, -ȯ(ə)rs, -ōəs, -ȯ(ə)s adjective
( -er/-est )
Etymology: Middle English cors, corse common, from cors, corse, n., customary sequence of events — more at course
1. : of ordinary or inferior quality or value : common , base
of what coarse metal ye are molded — Shakespeare
2.
a. : composed of relatively large parts or particles
coarse sand
: loose or rough in texture
coarse skin
the Southern textile industry developed first in … coarse goods; the North went in for medium and fine grade yarns — American Guide Series: Rhode Island
b. : of crude, unskilled, or careless workmanship or design : roughly or crudely formed : without delicacy or grace of feature
coarse imitations, completely lacking in the original delicacy
a coarse heavy face, loose-featured, red and sensual — Thomas Wolfe
c. of paper : of a grade suitable for wrapping or industrial use
d. : adjusted, set, or designed for heavy, fast, or less delicate work
a coarse saw with large teeth
a high-speed milling cutter with coarse pitch
e. : not precise or detailed with respect to adjustment, classification, discrimination : roughly approximate
to fill in the details of the rather coarse picture obtained by the earlier studies
one dial for coarse adjustment, one for fine
f. medicine , of a tremor : of wide excursion
a coarse tremor of the extremities
3.
a. : crude or unrefined in taste, manners, or sensibilities : without cultivation of taste, politeness or civility of manner, or delicacy of feeling
many of the muckraking novels … were simple parables of the coarse businessman and the sensitive intellectual — Bernard De Voto
b. : crude and indelicate of language or idea especially with violation of social taboos on language : obscene , profane
4.
a. dialect , of the weather : rough , stormy
b. dialect Britain , of persons or circumstances : brutal , harsh
5. : harsh, raucous, or rough in tone : not melodious or mellow
the coarse jangling of ordinary bells — G.B.Shaw
— used also of certain sounds heard in auscultation in pathological states of the chest
coarse rales
Synonyms:
vulgar , gross , obscene , ribald : coarse suggests unrefined crudeness, indelicacy, or robust roughness
he was forever making eyes at me — a coarse, puffy-faced, red-moustached young man, with his hair plastered down on each side of his forehead. I thought he was perfectly hateful … — A. Conan Doyle
the landlady who had tyrannized over her when ill-humoured and unpaid, or when pleased had treated her with a coarse familiarity scarcely less odious — W.M.Thackeray
In this sense, vulgar , a stronger term, describes what offends good taste or decency and may suggest boorishness
his passion for physical luxury nakedly revealed itself as simply the vulgar longing of the idle rich for conspicuous waste — Granville Hicks
her father is a … vulgar person, mean in his ideals and obtuse in his manners — John Erskine †1951
it was, in fact, the mouth that gave his face its sensual, sly, and ugly look, for a loose and vulgar smile seemed constantly to hover about its thick coarse edges — Thomas Wolfe
gross stresses crude animal inclinations and lack of refinement
merely gross, a scatological rather than a pornographic impropriety — Aldous Huxley
Clif Clawson, at forty, was gross. His face was sweaty, and puffy with pale flesh; his voice was raw; he fancied checked Norfolk jackets, tight across his swollen shoulders and his beefy hips — Sinclair Lewis
a spirituelle amoureuse, she is repelled by the gross or the voluptuary — S.N.Behrman
obscene is the strongest of this group in stressing impropriety, indecency, or nastiness
it was, of course, easy to pick out a line here and there … which was frank to indecency, yet certainly not obscene — H.S.Canby
his innate belief that human flesh is in some way obscene. In the old days artists … had painted decently and had draped their figures — Ellen Glasgow
there are depths beneath depths in what happened last night — obscure fetid chambers of the human soul. Black hatreds, unnatural desires, hideous impulses, obscene ambitions are at the bottom of it — W.H.Wright
ribald suggests rough merriment or crude humor at the irreverent, scurrilous, or vulgar
they had their backs to him, shaking wih the loose laughter which punctuates a ribald description — Mary Austin
a ribald folksong about fleas in the straw — J.L.Lowes