As for the singing itself, some may have been disappointed by a certain roughness of tone in the upper voices.

In most cases, the art here has a certain roughness, even a brutality to its appearance.

There seems to be a certain roughness to the sea this evening.

His principal flaw was a certain roughness in the transitions between lyrical passages.

William brushed him aside with a certain roughness and headed for Severinus, awaiting us in a corner.

He was startled and disappointed, and his speech conveyed it by a certain roughness of tone.

That said, many who appreciate a certain roughness to the city predict it cannot last.

This was not earthy playing, for closeness to the earth implies a certain roughness, a fallibility, even intermittent loss of full control.

"It has to have a certain roughness about it," he said.

I suppose I like a certain roughness in my work; I'm certainly not a 'civilised' painter.