roust
Americanverb (used with object)
verb
Other Word Forms
Inflected Forms
Participles
Conjugated Forms
Present
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roustsimple
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roustssimple
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have roustedperfect
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has roustedperfect
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am roustingprogressive
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are roustingprogressive
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is roustingprogressive
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have been roustingperfect progressive
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has been roustingperfect progressive
Past
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roustedsimple
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had roustedperfect
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was roustingprogressive
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were roustingprogressive
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had been roustingperfect progressive
Future
Etymology
Origin of roust
First recorded in 1650–60; perhaps alteration of rouse 1
Example Sentences
Examples are provided to illustrate real-world usage of words in context. Any opinions expressed do not reflect the views of Dictionary.com.
See Examples For:
I’d be the guy who falls asleep at 10, waking when authorities shine spotlights and blare Kenny G songs at my house to roust me out to vote.
From Slate ● Jan. 26, 2024
She didn’t roust a quorum of designers from their set ways.
From Washington Post ● Aug. 30, 2022
Advocates for the homeless ardently protest efforts to roust the encampments, arguing that people have nowhere else to go.
From Los Angeles Times ● Jun. 21, 2022
Asking the cops to roust them out of the building would have been terrible optics.
From Salon ● May 1, 2022
“What will we do once we catch him? I’ve been teaching myself to pinkie whistle. I might be able to roust someone up to help us.”
From "The Detective's Assistant" by Kate Hannigan
Sept. 16, 2019: The Tulsa Police Department finds Crawford’s body and rousts the local Nixonville.
From Slate ● Dec. 16, 2019
He rousts past Coleman and lays back for Krychowiak, arriving on the edge of the box to thunk wide.
From The Guardian ● Oct. 11, 2015
I tell you, when anybody gets into political life, ambition rousts up in 'em: path-master don't satisfy me.
From Sweet Cicely — or Josiah Allen as a Politician by Holley, Marietta
But truly the word, "Woman's Suffrage," rousts him up as quick as a mouse duz a drowsy cat, so, sez he, "I can't let you go, Samantha, into any such dangerous and onwomanly affair."
From Samantha on the Woman Question by Holley, Marietta
Eastern on July 20, bleary-eyed kids were rousted from their beds so they could tell their grandchildren they witnessed an epic event.
From The Wall Street Journal ● Jun. 29, 2026
Thousands fled Maui after the fires rousted them from their resort hotels and sent them scrambling from their sun chairs on Tuesday.
From Seattle Times ● Aug. 10, 2023
There is a strong chance that the quiet English degree-bearer in your life has already read the piece by Nathan Heller, who rousted several bewildering quotes from top-level Harvard academics.
From Los Angeles Times ● Mar. 1, 2023
It's getting increasingly difficult to find a place to sleep for the night without being rousted by police.
From Salon ● Dec. 19, 2022
Having rousted the troops, Lewis sat at the comm station to check overnight messages from Houston.
From "The Martian" by Andy Weir
Since then, a new mayor has accelerated the pace of rousting encampments.
From Seattle Times ● Jul. 17, 2022
Six o’clock already, I was just rousting offspring from bed, Then I stopped to check my email and just stood there shaking my head.
From Washington Post ● Jan. 3, 2019
“We’re not going to solve anything by rousting people, but rather by dealing with it by creating a solution.”
From Los Angeles Times ● Apr. 24, 2018
The years of pounding London’s streets and rousting out its ghosts are gone.
From The Guardian ● May 20, 2017
“Why on earth are you rousting me at this insane hour? Some of us are trying to sleep.”
From "The Girl Who Drank the Moon" by Kelly Barnhill
Definitions and idiom definitions from Dictionary.com Unabridged, based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2023
Idioms from The American Heritage® Idioms Dictionary copyright © 2002, 2001, 1995 by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company. Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company.
