From Longman Dictionary of Contemporary Englishcoarsecoarse /kɔːs $ kɔːrs/ ●○○ adjective 1 ROUGH/NOT SMOOTHhaving a rough surface that feels slightly hard SYN rough OPP smooth a jacket of coarse wool► see thesaurus at rough2 CSconsisting of threads or parts that are thick or large OPP fine The coarse sand was hot and rough under her feet. tufts of coarse grass3 RUDE/OBSCENEtalking in a rude and offensive way, especially about sex SYN crude coarse jokes —coarsely adverb coarsely ground black pepper —coarseness noun [uncountable]
Examples from the Corpus
coarse• Her straight hair, once dark brown, was becoming grey and coarse.• A coarse cloth was made from the local wool.• All the hospital beds were covered with coarse cotton sheets.• The former are usually coarse grained; the latter, fine grained or glassy.• Conversion to grassland also explains much of the loss of healthy shrubs, coarse grasses, cotton grass and rushes.• The fisherman's skin was dark and coarse, his hands big and strong.• Several comedians have been criticized for their coarse humor.• One grade coarser is twice the size of its predecessor and one grade finer is half the size.• She tried to ignore his coarse jokes and crude innuendoes -- he was obviously drunk.• But such coarse mutilation would not have fitted in with the polite way in which Perrault wished to retell his story.• She was emptying the contents of a stone mortar, a tobacco-colored crush of leaves, on to a scrap of coarse paper.• coarse sand• She touched it; it was dry and coarse to her touch.• Slice off the coarse top and the bottom tip of the carrot with a paring knife and discard.Origin coarse (1300-1400) Probably from course “(ordinary) way (of things)” 