ride roughshod over

ride roughshod over (third-person singular simple present rides roughshod over, present participle riding roughshod over, simple past rode roughshod over, past participle ridden roughshod over)

1. (transitive, idiomatic) To treat roughly or without care, respect, moderation, or control; to act in a bullying manner toward; to damage.
   • 1901, Henry B. Fuller, Under the Skylights, ch. 6:

     He was brusque; he often rode roughshod over feminine sensibilities.

   • 1902, Arthur Conan Doyle, The Hound of the Baskervilles, ch. 11:

     We'll teach these magnates that they cannot ride roughshod over the rights of the commoners, confound them!

   • 2001 June 25, Michael Fathers, "Demystifying a Demagogue," Time:

     He was a selfish, untalented and unprincipled man who rode roughshod over his mother.

   • 2011, Pierre-Joseph Proudhon; Paul Sharkey, transl., “Address to the Constituent National Assembly [31 July 1848]”, in Iain McKay, editor, Property is Theft!: A Pierre-Joseph Proudhon Anthology, Oakland, Calif.; Edinburgh: AK Press, →ISBN, page 345:

     The intention was, in riding roughshod over me, to ride roughshod over socialism at a stroke, which is to say, ride roughshod over the protests coming from the proletariat and, in so doing, to take another stride down the path of reaction.

   • [2014, Jacob T. Levy, “The Constitutional Entrenchment of Federalism”, in James E. Fleming and Jacob T. Levy, editors, Federalism and Subsidiarity, New York, N.Y.; London: New York University Press, →ISBN, page 347:

     [I]f the demos really were like a passionate drunk, willing and able to run roughshod over minorities, then it might also be willing and able to run roughshod over the judiciary or the constitution.]

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