allo stato grezzo

Italian edit

Etymology edit

Literally, at the crude state.

Prepositional phrase edit

allo stato grezzo

  1. (idiomatic) in the rough; in the raw
    • 2020, Barack Obama, chapter 19, in Chicca Galli, Paolo Lucca, Giuseppe Maugeri, transl., Una terra promessa [A Promised Land], Garzanti Libri:
      In America erano dovute passare generazioni prima che grazie a proteste, all'approvazione di nuove leggi, al giornalismo d'inchiesta e alla tenacia della magistratura queste manifestazioni di potere allo stato grezzo fossero contenute se non completamente soppresse.
      In America, it had taken generations of protests, progressive lawmaking, muckraking journalism, and dogged advocacy to check, if not fully eliminate, such raw exercises of power.
      (literally, “In America, generations needed to pass before, thanks to protests, the passage of new laws, investigative journalism and the judiciary's tenacity, these manifestations of power in the raw could be contained if not entirely suppressed.”)

See also edit