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rough noun A dense thicket of laurel or rhododendron. [DARE labels this usage "chiefly South Midland" in the U.S.]

1915 Bohannon Bear Hunt 462 Lying grounds, you must know, are, in this country, always on the north or Tennessee side of the mountains, where are those laurel growths known variously as "woolly heads," "slicks," "roughs" and "yellow patches" ... Nearer they bear some resemblance to a negro's head, if it were covered with green wool, hence "woolly head," and when you get into one you find it very distinctly rough, therefore "roughs." 1937 Hall Coll (Cades Cove TN) Bears hide in the roughs and have trails through them. 1953 Hall Coll (Bryson City NC) We would avoid huntin' on the Tennessee side as much as we could to keep from out of the roughs. It was so awful rough and laurely, and not much open woods on that side of the mountain ... The bear had left to go to his denning place in the rough ... Matt Hyde used to do some trapping back in there for bear, and they done that in back of the Smokies in those rough slicks, we call them.