ride roughshod over

A horse is roughshod if its hooves are shod with horseshoes that have calks (projecting parts to prevent slipping). Thus, something that a roughshod horse is ridden over is likely to be damaged by the projections of its horseshoes.

• "[B]eing in high ſpirits, after dinner, one of them being called upon for a toaſt, gave, „The d——l ride roughſhod over the raſcally part of the creation.”"
• "[H]ad the Commons of England been of his way of thinking, Charles [I of England] and his prerogative would have ridden roughshod over their necks at will."
• "Thus, revelling amidst the wrecks of poor, feeble, helpless, ruined woman, man rides roughshod over his slaughtered victim, (Jehu like), saying, "I shall have peace, though I walk in the imagination of my heart, to add drunkenness to thirst.""
• "He's so absent-minded and goodnatured, he lets those boys ride over him roughshod."
• "“[…] where I come from we aren't accustomed to being ridden over roughshod by any parrot-mouthed, pig-headed mule in a pop-gun pea-shooter battery. Are you ready?”"
• "He was brusque; he often rode roughshod over feminine sensibilities."
• "We'll teach these magnates that they cannot ride rough-shod over the rights of the commoners, confound them!"
• "He [Sanjay Gandhi] was a selfish, untalented and unprincipled man who rode roughshod over his mother [Indira Gandhi]."
• "[Richard] Ingrams has always enjoyed a reputation for insensitivity. As with other columnists in the British press, he treads on toes to make his point and rides roughshod over issues that others handle with kid gloves, or avoid altogether."
• "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."

• ride over
• run roughshod over

• intimidate