rough up vs work over

rough up and work over both are verbs.

Word	Noun	Adjective	Verb	Adverb
rough up	No	No	Yes	No
work over	No	No	Yes	No

As verbs, work over is a hypernym of rough up; that is, work over is a word with a broader meaning than rough up:

rough up: treat violently
work over: give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression

Other hypernyms of rough up include beat, beat up.

rough up (verb)	work over (verb)
treat violently	give a beating to; subject to a beating, either as a punishment or as an act of aggression