rough diamond

English

Noun

rough diamond (plural rough diamonds)

1. Synonym of diamond in the rough.
   • 1889, Rudyard Kipling, “Only A Subaltern”, in Under the Deodars, Boston: The Greenock Press, published 1899, page 148:

     By what power he drew after him the hearts of the roughest, and the Tail Twisters counted in their ranks some rough diamonds indeed, was a mystery to both skipper and C.O., who learned from the regimental chaplain that Bobby was considerably more in request in the hospital tents than the Reverend John Emery.

   • 2023 December 31, Agnès Poirier, “Evoking genius to defend ‘dark stars’ like Gérard Depardieu looks very French – and it is”, in The Observer‎, →ISSN:

     Depardieu will always remain in France’s collective imagination as a rough diamond, saved from a life of delinquency by the power of the French language and the great texts of literature and theatre.