Some suppose that it is unworthy of a robust character to be gentle in demeanor, that it indicates a certain amount of effeminacy, and that strength and gruffness go together.
Coarseness andgruffness lock doors, gentleness and refinement open them, while the rude, boorish man is shunned by all.
Johnson was called ursa major, or big bear, from the gruffness of his manner.
The voice falls flat and metallic, or drops into gruffness and harshness; losing its delicate tuneful inflections, its sympathetic timbre, its joyous quality.
His voice falls nearly an octave, lapsing from sweetness and purity to gruffness and volume.
Sit down," said Gashford, with less gruffness than usual, when his visitor entered his hut.
It's not enough," said Gashford, with a stern gruffness of tone and look which sank the petitioner's hopes below zero.
It creates an instantaneous impression in his behalf, while gruffness or coarseness excites as quick a prejudice against him.
Civility, refinement and gentleness are passports to hearts and homes, while awkwardness, coarseness and gruffness are met with locked doors and closed hearts.
Quite naturally life had slipped through from a film of darkness on to a brighter plane, and he greeted Boase with none of the gruffness that would have weighed on him earlier.
He stood staring at Ishmael, then spoke in a husky, uncertain voice that went suddenly from gruffness to a high querulousness.
His petulance does not, however, prevent his being pleasant when he is disposed; his gruffness does not destroy all his generosity, and his passionate moods are usually followed by penitence.
He is, if any thing, too cold in demonstration, and won in consequence, while in the army, a reputation for gruffness which he did not deserve.
Perhaps the captain missed the companionship of the stout lady he had parted from at Charing Cross, or it might be that his gruffness was a matter of habit--at any rate, after a puff or two, he spoke to Royson again.
She attributed his sudden gruffnessto a distaste for hearing his exploits lauded.
And now there was a decided gruffness in his voice.
It was astonishing, the politeness Andrew Malden assumed; how he overlooked all the gruffness of his guest and treated him like a prince.
There was a gruffness in Jerry's voice as he answered, a gruffnessthat tried hard to mask the trembling of his tones.
Sit down," he said with an effort at the gruffness of assured authority.
They accepted his gruffness as simple-mindedness, as blunt honesty.
The quietness of her question contrasted strangely with the gruffness of the Second Deputy's voice as he answered her.
But the hearty gruffness that remained was, somehow, very agreeable to Adela.
But the gruffness was a bit tremulous and there were tears in the man's voice.
Fanner Field received Ned and Dick with an air of gruffness that was belied by twinkling blue eyes and, when Ned had finished telling his story and offered to pay for the chicken, said: "Did you take that chicken out of my poultry-house?
Beneath his gruffness and his jeers he was so honestly pushing on for what he could find most real in life.
It was not a ferocious gruffness for a man of his kind; but it seemed so to her who had been used to gentleness only, until these last few days.
With a gruffness as if the evening mist had got into his throat he said: "Let's take another bench.
The above list will hopefully give you a few useful examples demonstrating the appropriate usage of "gruffness" in a variety of sentences. We hope that you will now be able to make sentences using this word.
