How to Use roughhouse in a Sentence

roughhouse

verb
  • The kids were roughhousing in the living room.
  • The boys cracked jokes, roughhoused and argued about who was the cutest girl in the shelter.
    Paulina Villegas, New York Times, 29 Oct. 2019
  • So go ahead, roughhouse with your siblings a little more often for the good of the clan.
    Sarah Jay, Discover Magazine, 31 Jan. 2022
  • Even with kids jumping and roughhousing on it, this couch looks great.
    Laura Denby, Peoplemag, 11 May 2023
  • The New Jersey in him seemed ready to continue roughhousing.
    Mattathias Schwartz, New York Times, 27 June 2018
  • That summer, Boulger broke his arm while roughhousing with friends, forcing him out of the contact-heavy sports.
    BostonGlobe.com, 22 Sep. 2019
  • The roughhousing ranges from Lopez putting wrestling holds on opposing mascots to battling them with Star Wars light sabers or even hitting them on the head with poster boards.
    David Blank, CNN, 12 Apr. 2018
  • This was the place where my brother accidentally gave me a bloody nose roughhousing one day.
    Rubén Rosario, Twin Cities, 11 June 2017
  • There are shots of children at play, on the beach, on a farm, or roughhousing in a schoolyard but the incidents related are like those from a nightmare or fairy tale.
    Peter Keough, BostonGlobe.com, 21 Aug. 2019
  • Family photos depict their father cuddling and roughhousing with this sons, and posing in front of a fire truck with a young Leonard.
    Anne Barnard, New York Times, 24 Sep. 2019
  • Many of the children remember playing catch, joking and roughhousing with him.
    Maria Torres, kansascity, 21 Jan. 2018
  • The Pilot Rock second-grader rode his bike, scarfed down molasses cookies after school and roughhoused with his three step-brothers.
    CBS News, 26 Jan. 2018
  • Now, on the pool deck, the boys tussle and roughhouse with the zeal of Labrador puppies, slugging each other lovingly in the shoulders and then retreating with giggles like ninnies.
    Barrett Swanson, Harper's Magazine, 25 May 2021
  • Nutmeg, a 4-year-old mother red panda, and her cub, 6-month-old Jackie, can be seen in the video playfully swatting and roughhousing with each other.
    Dana Hedgpeth, Washington Post, 26 Jan. 2018
  • The lawsuit alleges that Barlow, who was also a youth pastor, would roughhouse members of the boys' basketball team and would spend time alone with students in his office.
    Andrew Mark Miller, Fox News, 1 Dec. 2022
  • Mr. Murphy loved roughhousing with his boxer, Harley, who died recently, and playing or dancing with the couple's 2-year-old son, Jamey Michael.
    Barbara Boyer, Philly.com, 31 May 2017
  • According to one 2020 study, children who roughhouse with their fathers are better able to control their emotions and less likely to have behavioral problems.
    Stephanie H. Murray, The Week, 4 Jan. 2022
  • Tilting down accomplished the opposite motion, and Max was quick to start roughhousing with his father, Dr. Ted Ng, landing a few light punches before reaching up and grabbing his dad’s nose.
    San Diego Union-Tribune, 15 June 2019
  • Scenes of Sarah and Jessie gently roughhousing capture the blissful mother-daughter bond with a poignant intensity, wrapping the viewer in the blanket of their intimacy.
    Stephen Holden, New York Times, 16 Feb. 2017
  • Until then, my daughter has plenty to occupy her: playing basketball, reading, drawing comics, roughhousing with her siblings.
    Washington Post, 8 June 2019
  • But that defeat–to a tough, plodding, roughhousing opponent who came in overweight and utilized what could fairly be described as questionable tactics–only underscored the importance of Lomachenko’s footwork.
    Greg Bishop, SI.com, 9 May 2018
  • Three police recruits have resigned in the wake of internal affairs investigations into their roles in the serious injury of a fellow student during roughhousing in a dorm at the state’s basic training academy.
    oregonlive, 24 Apr. 2020
  • Their favorite moments are the unscripted ones after 9 p.m., shut-off time for electronic devices, when the whole gang tumbles into the living room, roughhousing, giggling, asking questions, talking — as families do — about nothing and everything.
    Anndee Hochman, Philly.com, 13 Sep. 2017
  • At first, everything’s lovingly quirky — Bear smoking his pipe in the cramped studio, roughhousing with Pinch; Natalie neglecting her pottery to accommodate Bear’s manic fits of creativity.
    Don Oldenburg, USA TODAY, 20 Mar. 2018
  • The kids were roughhousing in the living room.
  • The boys cracked jokes, roughhoused and argued about who was the cutest girl in the shelter.
    Paulina Villegas, New York Times, 29 Oct. 2019
  • So go ahead, roughhouse with your siblings a little more often for the good of the clan.
    Sarah Jay, Discover Magazine, 31 Jan. 2022
  • Even with kids jumping and roughhousing on it, this couch looks great.
    Laura Denby, Peoplemag, 11 May 2023
  • The New Jersey in him seemed ready to continue roughhousing.
    Mattathias Schwartz, New York Times, 27 June 2018
  • That summer, Boulger broke his arm while roughhousing with friends, forcing him out of the contact-heavy sports.
    BostonGlobe.com, 22 Sep. 2019

Some of these examples are programmatically compiled from various online sources to illustrate current usage of the word 'roughhouse.' Any opinions expressed in the examples do not represent those of Merriam-Webster or its editors. Send us feedback about these examples.

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