roughneck

[ ruhf-nek ]
See synonyms for roughneck on Thesaurus.com
noun
  1. a rough, coarse person; a tough.

  2. any laborer working on an oil-drilling rig.: Compare roustabout (def. 4).

verb (used without object)
  1. to work as a roughneck.

Origin of roughneck

1
An Americanism dating back to 1830–40; rough + neck

Words Nearby roughneck

Dictionary.com Unabridged Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2024

How to use roughneck in a sentence

British Dictionary definitions for roughneck

roughneck

/ (ˈrʌfˌnɛk) /


nounslang
  1. a rough or violent person; thug

  2. a worker in an oil-drilling operation

Collins English Dictionary - Complete & Unabridged 2012 Digital Edition © William Collins Sons & Co. Ltd. 1979, 1986 © HarperCollins Publishers 1998, 2000, 2003, 2005, 2006, 2007, 2009, 2012