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Showing results for roust. Search instead for rousty.
Synonyms

roust

American  
[raust] / raʊst /

verb (used with object)

  • rousts,
    present (3rd person singular)
  • rousted,
    past participle,  past
  • rousting
    present participle
  1. to rout, as from a place.

    to roust someone out of bed.


roust British  
/ raʊst /

verb

  1. to rout or stir, as out of bed

"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

Other Word Forms

Inflected Forms

Participles

Conjugated Forms

Present

Past

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 people have nowhere else to go.

From Salon ● Jun. 22, 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

“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 Marietta Holley

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 Marietta Holley

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

One man was even rousted from sleep at 6 a.m., with helicopters circling overhead, and taken to jail in his underwear.

From Salon ● Sep. 3, 2022

One of the men rousted by the officers went up to the platform.

From New York Times ● Feb. 22, 2022

That same month, he pleaded guilty to disorderly conduct after cops rousted him at 3:45 in the morning as he slept on a walkway between his studio and an adjoining building.

From Seattle Times ● Aug. 1, 2021

Having rousted the troops, Lewis sat at the comm station to check overnight messages from Houston.

From "The Martian" by Andy Weir

In voting unanimously last week for ambassadors, Sound Transit’s governing board shunned other tactics ranging from eliminating fares to rousting people off trains for nonpayment to installing station turnstiles that require a pass or ticket.

From Seattle Times ● Sep. 2, 2022

"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

In July, FBI agents raided his condominium in Alexandria, rousting Manafort and his wife from bed with a search a warrant — a tactic rarely employed in white-collar criminal cases.

From Washington Post ● Mar. 28, 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

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