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• n  a throaty harshness
• n  an abrupt discourteous manner

• He went on paying low wages, giving away $100 bills, warning his employes never to marry, in general behaving with the gruffness expected of him.
• Her feistiness meshes well with Duvall's homey gruffness: they're the Hepburn and Tracy of the European Theater.
• Asner, 79, who used his slow burn brilliantly on the great Mary Tyler Moore '70s sitcom, had the gruffness and deadpan comic timing to bring Carl to vocal life.

• hoarseness
• huskiness
• abruptness
• brusqueness
• curtness
• shortness

News & Articles

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• James Gandolfini: “No character captured the longing and melancholy of American life better than Tony Soprano”
  The actor's transfixing blend of gruffness and vulnerability breathed life into most memorable TV protagonist ever        
  June 20, 2013 - Salon.com

Quotes

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• Norm Dicks in Seattle Post Intelligencer
  I hear the tone of the officers is pretty abrupt,Dicks told the newspaper. "Gruffness: that has turned people off. They need to try to treat people nicely, not try to terrify people."
• Greg Kinnear in Washington Times
  I thought what was interesting and challenging about this man's story was that he is not this perfect hero at all, by any stretch,says Mr. Kinnear. "If anything, he's got a kind of gruffness, stubbornness, distrustfulness ...... In spite...