roustabout
Americannoun
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a wharf laborer or deck hand, as on the Mississippi River.
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an unskilled laborer who lives by odd jobs.
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a circus laborer who helps in setting up and taking down the tents and in caring for the animals, equipment, and grounds.
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any unskilled laborer working in an oil field.
noun
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an unskilled labourer on an oil rig
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another word for rouseabout
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a labourer in a circus or fairground
Etymology
Origin of roustabout
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.
Shane's father, Maurice, who also described himself as something of a "roustabout", would, he said, try to read James Joyce's famously impenetrable, Finnegan's Wake with an 11-year-old Shane.
From BBC ● Nov. 30, 2023
As a former construction worker, he had the foundation, with some additional training, to begin working as a roustabout, assembling and repairing equipment in the offshore oil industry two years ago.
From Seattle Times ● May 4, 2023
Norwood Pratt is an earnest gas station employee who gets wrapped up in a roustabout grifter’s web.
From Washington Post ● Apr. 13, 2023
His young mother, Beatrice, had married an engineer and roustabout named Horace Seidner who turned out not to be the family type.
From New York Times ● Oct. 13, 2022
An ancient roustabout is also looking through the stands but facing the other direction.
From "Water for Elephants" by Sara Gruen
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.
