as in stevedore
one who loads and unloads ships at a port
sought work as a roustabout on the city's seedy waterfront
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Recent Examples of roustabout
With only an eighth-grade education — there was no high school near his isolated farm — Dad supported a family on an oil worker’s pay, rising through the ranks from roustabout to toolpusher and finally assistant foreman at Shell’s Ventura lease.
—
George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2023
Cox would work his way up from a roustabout and roughneck to eventually leading an oil and gas company as well as other notable businesses.
—Dallas News, 7 Nov. 2020
The shale patch was the Wild West reborn, featuring poker games with $1000 buy-ins, boisterous strip clubs packed with roustabouts and brawling in the muddy streets illuminated by columns of flaring gas.
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2020
The Showmen's League Of America commemorates the 1918 Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train disaster which killed 86 circus performers and roustabouts and injured 127, at Showman's Rest in Wood Lawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Ill., on Thursday, May 5, 2018.
—Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 20 Feb. 2020
See All Example Sentences for roustabout
George Skelton, Los Angeles Times, 3 Apr. 2023
Cox would work his way up from a roustabout and roughneck to eventually leading an oil and gas company as well as other notable businesses.
—Dallas News, 7 Nov. 2020
The shale patch was the Wild West reborn, featuring poker games with $1000 buy-ins, boisterous strip clubs packed with roustabouts and brawling in the muddy streets illuminated by columns of flaring gas.
—Shawn Tully, Fortune, 30 Apr. 2020
The Showmen's League Of America commemorates the 1918 Hagenbeck-Wallace Circus train disaster which killed 86 circus performers and roustabouts and injured 127, at Showman's Rest in Wood Lawn Cemetery in Forest Park, Ill., on Thursday, May 5, 2018.
—Dawn Mitchell, Indianapolis Star, 20 Feb. 2020
See All Example Sentences for roustabout
Recent Examples of Synonyms for roustabout
Noun
-
The jobs reflected in the survey include dockworkers, stevedores, truck drivers, financing and administrative positions.—
Tom Hudson,
Sun Sentinel,
10 July 2025
-
His father was a stevedore and his mother an autodidact who aspired to something better than the prefab house where her family lived.—
Molly Fischer,
New Yorker,
5 May 2025
Noun
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In the late Eighties, Mom and I moved with my stepfather, George, a longshoreman, to his apartment in Hell’s Kitchen, the west side of midtown Manhattan.—
John J. Lennon,
Rolling Stone,
19 July 2025
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Finish the night at Sunny’s Bar, a neighborhood institution that first served longshoremen more than 100 years ago.—
Ellen Carpenter,
AFAR Media,
17 July 2025
Noun
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However, cargo operations were temporarily suspended at Pier G while responders worked to ensure the safety of dockworkers and other port personnel.—
Doc Louallen,
ABC News,
9 Sep. 2025
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Automation had been a central point of contention in the two-year contract negotiations between the East and Gulf Coast port dockworkers’ union and the United States Maritime Alliance (USMX).—
Glenn Taylor,
Sourcing Journal,
5 Sep. 2025
Cite this Entry
“Roustabout.” Merriam-Webster.com Thesaurus, Merriam-Webster, https://www.merriam-webster.com/thesaurus/roustabout. Accessed 13 Sep. 2025.
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